§ 891. CURRENTS OF THE SEA. 289 



dian Ocean in that direction. The waters of this ocean are hotter 

 than those of the Caribbean Sea, and the evaporating force there 

 (§ 800) is much greater. That it is greater we might, without 

 observation, infer from the fact of a higher temperature and a 

 greater amount of precipitation on the neighboring shores (§ 298). 

 These two facts, taken together, tend, it would seem, to show that 

 large currents of warm water have their genesis in the Indian 

 Ocean. One of them is the well-known Mozambique current, 

 called at the Cape of Good Hope the Lagulhas current. Another 

 of these warm currents from the Indian Ocean makes its escape 

 through the Straits of Malacca, and, being joined bj other warm 

 streams from the Java and China Seas, flows out into the Pacific, 

 like another Gulf Stream, between the Philippines and the shores 

 of Asia. Thence it attempts the great circle route (§118) for the 

 Aleutian Islands, tempering climates, and losing itself in the sea 

 as its waters grow cool on its route toward the northwest coast 

 of America. 



891. Between the physical features of this, the "Black Stream" 

 The Black Stream of of the Pacific, and thc Gulf Stream of the Atlantic, 



the Pacific contrast- ' 



ei with the Gulf thcrc are several points of resemblance. Sumatra 



Stream of the Atlan- t -« r i 



tic. and Malacca correspond to Florida and Cuba; Bor- 



neo to the Bahamas, with the Old Providence Channel to the 

 south, and the Florida Pass to the west. The coasts of China 

 answer to those of the United States, the Philippines to the Ber- 

 mudas, the Japan Islands to Newfoundland. As with the Gulf 

 Stream, so also here with this China current, there is a counter 

 current of cold water between it and the shore. The climates of 

 the Asiatic coast correspond with those of America along the At- 

 lantic, and those of Columbia, Washington, and Vancouver re- 

 semble those of Western Europe and the British Islands ; the 

 climate of California (State) resembles that of Spain ; the sandy 

 plains and rainless regions of Lower California reminding one of 

 Africa, with its deserts between the same parallels, etc. More- 

 over, the North Pacific, like the North Atlantic, is enveloped, 

 where these warm waters go, with mists and fogs, and streaked 

 with lightning. The Aleutian Islands are almost as renowned for 

 fogs and mists as are the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. A 

 surface current flows north from Behring's Strait into the Arctic 

 Sea; but in the Atlantic the current is from, not into the Arctic 



