202 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA. 



five hundred miles to the west of longitude 23° have no difiiculty 

 on account of this current in clearing that cape. I receive almost 

 daily the abstract logs of vessels that cross the equator west of 

 30° west, and in three days from that crossing they are generally 

 clear of that cape. A few of them report the current in their 

 favor ; most of them experience no current at all ; but, now and 

 then, some do find a current setting to the northward and west- 

 ward, and operating against them at the rate of twenty miles a 

 day. The intertropical regions of the Atlantic, like those of the 

 other oceans (§ 401), abound with conflicting currents, which no 

 researches yet have enabled the mariner to unravel so that he 

 may at all times know wherd they are and tell how they run, in 

 order that he may be certain of their help when favorable, or 

 sure of avoiding them if adverse. 



409. There are other currents, such as the Greenland Current, 

 The Greenland Cur- ^hc cold currcut from Davis' Strait, the ice-bearing 

 '®°*- current from the Antarctic regions, all setting into 



the Atlantic and the Gulf Stream, one branch of which finds its 

 way into the Arctic Sea ; the other (§ 89) finds its way back to 

 the south partly as Rennell's current, all of which have been well 

 treated of in Chap. II., or are delineated on Plates YI. and IX. 

 Judging by these, there would seem to be a larger flow of polar 

 waters into the Atlantic than of other waters from it, and I can 

 not account for the preservation of the equilibrium of this ocean 

 by any other hypothesis than that which calls in the aid of under 

 currents. They, I have no doubt, bear an important part in the 

 system of oceanic circulation. 



