OCEAN CURRENTS 177 



from the sub -tropical Atlantic ; while Le Danois, in France, 

 has recently stated that the Gulf Stream does not extend 

 beyond the Sargasso Sea, and that beyond that there is 

 merely a permeation of the North Atlantic by salter and 

 warmer water expanded as the effect of the tropical sun on 

 the equatorial waters — but the effect upon European seas 

 is the same whichever view we adopt, and it matters little 

 whether we call the water that reaches our western shores 

 "Gulf Stream" or "Atlantic Drift." We are indebted 

 directly or indirectly for the amenities we enjoy on the 

 eastern shores of the Atlantic to that mighty river which 

 issues from the Guff of Mexico and spreads its beneficent 

 influence over the North Atlantic, and is certainly one of 

 the greatest of oceanographic phenomena. 



We have seen that the Guff Stream does not reach mid- 

 Atlantic as a continuous body of water. It is when off 

 the Banks of Newfoundland that it first appears to break 

 up and form several main divisions : a northern branch 

 which runs towards Davis Strait, partly as an under-current ; 

 an eastern branch running towards the Azores and, spreading 

 out like a fan, merges finally into the Canary Stream and 

 the great whirlpool of the Sargasso Sea ; and a third or 

 North European branch which runs towards the British 

 Isles and is then continued up the Norwegian coast and also 

 into the North Sea. 



Dr. Otto Petterssen, writing of its general influence, says 

 that this flow of warm surface water from tropical and sub- 

 tropical regions continues Hke a wave through the North 

 Atlantic Ocean, and is felt in the most distant parts of the 

 Atlantic -stream system — as a rise in ocean level, highest in 

 October to December and lowest in March, and a quickening 

 of the warm under-currents ; and these fluctuations of the 

 Guff Stream correspond with other phenomena, atmospheric, 

 planktonic and in the migration of fishes. It is estimated 

 that the Guff Stream in the Atlantic gives off enough heat 

 to warm the air aU over North Europe, and oceanographic 



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