CURRENTS OF THE SEA. 



169 



463. To use their own expressions, "It was wonderful, indeed, 

 to see this harrega move off, against wind, and sea, and surface 

 current, at the rate of over one knot an hour, as was generally tlie 

 case, and on one occasion as much as If knots. The men in the 

 i)o;it could not repress exclamations of surprise, for it really ap- 

 peared as if some monster of the deep had hold of the weight be- 

 low, and was walking off with it."* Both officers and men were 

 amazed at the sight. 



464. The experiments in deep-sea soundings have also thrown 

 much light upon the subject of under currents. There is reason 

 to believe that they exist in all, or almost all parts of the deep 

 sea, for never in any instance yet has the deep-sea line ceased to 

 run out, even after the plummet had reached the bottom. 



465. If the line be held fast in the boat, it invariably parts, 

 showing, when two or three miles of it are out, that the under- 

 currents are sweeping against the bight of it with ^vhat seamen 

 call a swigging force^ that no sounding twine has yet proved 

 strong enough to withstand. 



466. Lieutenant J. P. Parker, of the United States frigate Con- 

 gress, attempted, in 1852, a deep-sea sounding off the coast of 

 South America. He Avas engaged "with the experiment eight or 

 nine hours, during which time a line nearly ten miles long v\^as 

 paid out. Night coming on, he had to part the line (which he did 

 simply by attempting to haul it in) and return on board. Exam- 

 ination proved that the ocean there, instead of being over ten 

 miles in depth, was not over three, and that the line was swept 

 out by the force of one or more under cuiTcnts. But in w^hat di- 

 rection these currents were running is not know^n. 



467. It may, therefore, without doing any violence to the rules 

 of philosophical investigation,, be conjectured, that the equilibrium 

 of all the seas is preserved, to a greater or less extent, by this 

 system of currents and counter-currents at and below the sur- 

 face. 



If we except the tides, and the partial cuiTcnts of the sea, such 

 as those that may be created by the wind, w^e may lay it down as 

 a rule (§ 31) that aU the currents of the ocean owe their origin to 



* Lieutenant Walsh. 



