58 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA. 



to be regarded by sucli an one merely as an immense current of 

 warm water running across the ocean, but as a balance-wheel — a 

 part of that grand machinery by which air and water are adapted 

 to each other, and by which this earth itself is adapted to the well- 

 being of its inhabitants — of the flora which decks, and the fauna 

 which enlivens its surface. 



166. Let us now consider the Influence of (lie Gulf Stream upon 

 Meteorology OF THE ^^^^ Meteowlogy of the Ocean. To use a sailor ex- 

 Si^USheiifreedS pressiou, the Gulf Stream is the great "weather- 

 ^eat hurricane "of brccdcr" of the North Atlantic Ocean. The most 

 ^ '^*^- furious gales of wind sweep along with it ; and the 



fogs of Newfoundland, which so much endanger navigation in 

 spring and summer, doubtless owe their existence to the presence, 

 in that cold sea, of immense volumes of warm water brought by 

 the Gulf Stream. Sir Philip Brooke 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 current produced great irregu- 

 larities in his chronometers." The excess 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 bosom, we 

 might expect storms of the most violent kind to accompany it in 

 its course. Accordingly, the most terrific that rage on the ocean 

 have been known to spend their fury within or near its borders. 

 Of all storms, the hurricanes of the West Indies and the typhoons 

 of the China seas cause the most ships to founder. The stoutest 

 men-of-war go down before them, and seldom, indeed, is any one 

 of the crew left to tell the tale. Of this the Hornet, the Albany, 

 and the Grampus, armed cruisers in the American navy, all are 

 memorable and melancholy examples. Our nautical works tell 

 ns of a West India hurricane so violent that it forced the Gulf 

 Stream back to its sources, and piled up the water 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 

 was never surpassed in awful sublimity on the ocean. The water 



