QQ THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA. 



!N"orfolk or Baltimore, with their crews enervated in tropical cli- 

 mates, have encountered, as far down as the Capes of Virginia, 

 snow-storms that have driven them back into the Gulf Stream 

 time and again, and have kept them out for forty, fifty, and even 

 for sixty days, trying to make an anchorage. 



185. Nevertheless, the presence of the warm waters of the Gulf 

 Rnnning south to Stream, with their summer heat in mid- winter, off 

 spend the winter. ^-^Q shorcs of Kcw England, is a great boon to nav- 

 igation. At this season of the year especially, the number of 

 wrecks and the loss of life along the Atlantic sea-front are fright- 

 ful. The month's average of wrecks has been as high as three a 

 day. How many escape by seeking refuge from the cold in the 

 warm waters of the Gulf Stream is matter of conjecture. Suffice 

 it to say, that before their temperature was known, vessels thus 

 distressed knew of no place of refage short of the West Indies ; 

 and the newspapers of that day-7-Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette 

 among them — inform us that it was no uncommon occurrence for 

 vessels bound for the Capes of the Delaware in winter to be 

 blown ofP and to go to the West Indies, and there wait for the re- 

 turn of spring before they would attempt another approach to this 

 part of the coast. 



186. Accordingly, Dr. Franklin's discovery with regard to the 

 Thermal navigation. Gulf Stream tcmpcrature was looked upon as one 

 of great importance, not only on account of its affording to the 

 frosted mariner in winter a convenient refuge from the snow-storm, 

 but because of its serving the navigator with an excellent land- 

 mark or beacon for our coast in all weathers. And so viewing it, 

 the doctor, through political considerations, concealed his discov- 

 ery for a while. The prize of £20,000, which had been offered, 

 and partly paid, by the British government, to Harrison, the chro- 

 nometer maker, for improving the means of finding longitude at 

 sea, was fresh in the minds of navigators. And here it was 

 thought a solution of the grand problem — for longitude at sea 

 was a grand problem — had been stumbled upon by chance ; for, 

 on approaching the coast, the current of warm water in the Gulf 

 Stream, and of cold water on this side of it, if tried with the ther- 

 mometer, would enable the mariner to judge with great certainty, 

 and in the worst of weather, as to his position. Jonathan Wil- 

 liams afterward, in speaking of the importance which the thermal 



