§ 393, 394. CURRENTS OF THE SEA. 191 



they curve along it. Though so near the land, they seldom reach 

 it. They march into these warm waters with furious speed ; 

 reaching them with a low barometer, they pause and die out. 

 That officer has conferred a boon upon the Indiamen of all flags, 

 for he has taught them how to avoid these dreadful winter storms 

 of the Cape. . 



893. There is sometimes, if not always, another exit of warm 

 The currents and watcr from the Indian Ocean. It seems to be an 

 Ocean. ovcrflow of the great intertropical caldron of In- 

 dia — seeking to escape thence, it works its way polarward more 

 as a drift than as a current. It is to the Mozambique current 

 what the northern flow of warm waters in the Atlantic (§ 141) is 

 to the Gulf Stream. This Indian overflow is very large. The 

 best indication of it is afforded by the sperm whale curve (Plate 

 IX.). This overflow finds its way south midway between Africa 

 and Australia, and appears to lose itself in passing around a sort 

 of Sargasso Sea, thinly strewed with patches of weed. ISTor need 

 we be surprised at such a vast flow of warm water as these three 

 currents indicate from the Indian Ocean, when we recollect that 

 this ocean (§ 392) is land-locked on the north, and that the tem- 

 perature of its waters is frequently as high as 90° Fahr. There 

 must, therefore, be immense volumes of water flowing into the 

 Indian Ocean to supply the waste created by these warm currents. 



894. On either side of this warm current that escapes from the 



The ice-bearing cur- intertropical parts of the Indian Ocean, but especial- 

 rents from the Ant- T* t • t •!• 



arctic regions. ly ou the Australian side, an ice-bearmg current 

 (Plate IX.) is found wending its way from the Antarctic regions 

 with supplies of cold water to modify climates and restore the 

 aqueous equilibrium in that part of the world. There is a gen- 

 eral drift up into the South Atlantic of ice-bearing waters from 

 Antarctic seas. The icebergs brought thence, being often very 

 large and high, are drifted to the^ eastward by the " brave west 

 winds" of those regions. Hence the icebergs that are so often 

 seen to the south of the Cape of Good Hope. They set off for 

 the Atlantic, but were driven to the eastward by the west winds 

 of these latitudes. The Gulf Stream seldom permits icebergs 

 from Arctic waters to reach the parallel of 40° in the North At- 

 lantic, but I have known the ice-bearing current which passes cast 

 of Cape Horn into the South Atlantic to convey its bergs as for 



