INFLUENCE OF THE GULF STREAM UPON CLIMATES. 55 



found the air on each side of it at the freezing point, while that of 

 its waters was 80°. " The heavy, warm, damp air over the cur- 

 rent produced great irregularities in his chronometers." The ex- 

 cess of heat daily brought into such a region by the waters of the 

 Gulf Stream would, if suddenly stricken from them, be sufficient 

 to make the column of superincumbent atmosphere hotter than 

 melted iron. 



With such an element of atmospherical disturbance in its bo- 

 som, we might expect storms of the most violent kind to accom- 

 pany it in its course. Accordingly, the most terrific that rage on 

 the ocean have been known to spend their fury in and near its 

 borders. 



Our nautical w^orks tell us of a storm which forced this stream 

 back to its sources, and piled up the w^ater in the Gulf to the 

 height of thirty feet. The Ledbury Snow attempted to ride it 

 out. When it abated, she found herself high up on the dry land, 

 and discovered that she had let go her anchor among the tree tops 

 on Elliott's Key. The Florida Keys were inundated many feet, 

 and, it is said, the scene presented in the Gulf Stream v/as never 

 surpassed in awful sublimity on the ocean. The water thus dam- 

 med up is said to have rushed out with wonderful velocity against 

 the fury of the gale, producing a sea that beggared description. 



The "great hurricane" of 1780 commenced at Barbadoes. In. 

 it, the bark was blown from the trees, and the fruits of the earth 

 destroyed ; the very bottom and depths of the sea w^ere uprooted, 

 and the weaves rose to such a height that forts and castles were 

 washed away, and their great guns carried about in the air; 

 houses were blown dow^n, ships were WTecked, and the bodies of 

 men and beasts lifted up above the earth and dashed to pieces in 

 the storm. At the different islands, not less than twenty thou- 

 sand persons lost their lives on shore, while farther to the north, 

 the "Sterling Castle" and the "Dover Castle," men-of-war, 

 were wrecked at sea, and fifty sail driven on shore at the Bermu- 

 das. 



Several years ago, the British Admiralty set on foot inquiries 

 as to the cause of the storms in certain parts of the Atlantic, which 

 so often rage with disastrous effects to navigation. The result 

 may be summed up in the conclusion to which the investigation 

 led : that they are occasioned by the irregularity between the tem- 



