§ 184. GULF STREAM, CLIMATES, AND COMMERCE. ^5 



acquainted with it by the whales which were found on either side 

 of it, but never in it (§ 158). At the request of the doctor, he 

 then traced on a chart the course of this stream from the Straits 

 of Florida. The doctor had it engraved at Tower Hill, and sent 

 copies of it to the Falmouth captains, who paid no attention to it. 

 The course of the Gulf Stream, as laid down by that fisherman 

 from his general recollection of it, has been retained and quoted 

 on the charts for navigation, we may say, until the present day. 

 But the investigations of which we are treating are beginning to 

 throw more light upon this subject ; they are giving us more cor- 

 rect knowledge in every respect with regard to it, and to many 

 other new and striking features in the physical geography of the 

 sea. 



18-1. No part of the world affords a more difficult or dangerous 

 Using the Gulf uavigatlou than the approaches of our northern 

 stream in winter, ^^^g^ ^^ wiutcr. Bcforc the warmth of the Gulf 

 Stream was known, a voyage at this season from Europe to ISTew 

 England, New York, and even to the Capes of the Delaware or 

 Chesapeake, was many times more trying, difficult, and dangerous 

 than it now is. In making this part of the coast, vessels are fre- 

 quently met by snow-storms and gales which mock the seaman's 

 strength and set at naught his skill. In a little while his bark 

 becomes a mass of ice ; with her crew frosted and helpless, she 

 remains obedient only to her helm, and is kept away for the Gulf 

 Stream. After a few hours' run, she reaches its edge, and almost 

 at the next bound passes from the midst of winter into a sea at 

 summer heat. Now the ice disappears from her apparel; the 

 sailor bathes his stiffened limbs in tepid waters ; feeling himself 

 invigorated and refreshed with the genial warmth about him, he 

 realizes, out there at sea, the fable of Antosus and his mother 

 Earth. He rises up, and attempts to make his port again, and is 

 again, perhaps, as rudely met and beat back from the northwest; 

 but each time that he is driven off from the contest, he comes forth 

 from this stream, like the ancient son of Neptune, stronger and 

 stronger, until, after many days, his freshened strength prevails, 

 and he at last triumphs, and enters his haven in safety, though in 

 this contest he sometimes falls to rise no more, for it is terrible. 

 Many ships annually founder in these gales ; and I might name 

 instances, for they are not uncommon, in which vessels bound to 



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