THE GULF STRK^M. 33 



the warm ^\'aters of the stream to mix vdth the cool of the ocean 

 that excites wonder and calls forth remark. But have we not, so 

 to speak, a similar reluctance manifested by all fluids, only upon 

 a smaller scale, or under circumstances less calculated to attract 

 attention or excite remark ? 



99. The water, hot and cold, as it is let into the tub for a warm 

 Illustrations bath, generally arranges itself in layers or sections, 



according to temperatm'e ; it requu'es violent stirring to break them 

 up, mix, and bring the whole to an even temperature. The jet of 

 air from the blow-pipe, or of gas from the bm-ner, presents the 

 phenomenon still more familiarly ; here we have, as with the Gulf 

 Stream, the dividing hne between fluids in motion and fluids at rest 

 finely presented. There is a like reluctance for mixing between 

 streams of clear and muddy water. This is very marked between 

 the red waters of the Missomi and the inky waters of the upper 

 Mississippi ; here the waters of each may be distinguished for the 

 distance of several miles after these two rivers come together. It 

 requires force to inject, as it were, the particles of one of these 

 waters among those of the other, for mere vis inertia tends to 

 maintain in then" statu quo fluids that have abeady arranged 

 themselves in layers, streaks, or aggregations. 



100. In the ocean we have the continual heaving of the sea and 

 How the water of agitatiou of the waves to overcome this vis 

 fel-s fr^ilStto'lai inertia, and the marvel is, that they in their violence 

 waters. (Jo not, by mingling the Gulf and httoral waters 

 together (§ 70), sooner break up and obliterate aU marks of 

 a division between them. But the waters of the Gulf Stream 

 difier from the inshore waters not only in coloin-, transparency, and 

 temperature, but in specific gravity, in saltness (§ 102), and in other 

 properties, I conjectm-e, also. Therefore they may have a peculiar 

 viscosity, or molecular arrangement of then- g\mi, w^hich fiurther tends 

 to prevent mixtm-e, and so preserve their line of demarkation. 



101. Observations made for the pm-pose in the navy show that 

 Action on copper, sliips cruisiug in the West Indies sufier in their cop- 

 per sheathing more than they do in any other seas. This would 

 indicate that the waters of the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, 

 fi'om which the Gulf Stream is fed, have some peculiar property or 

 other which makes them so destructive upon the copper of cruisers. 



102. The story told by the copper and the blue colour (§71) in- 

 siitness of tbeGuif dicatcs a higher point of saturation ^dth salts than sea 

 Stream. watcr generally has ; and the salometer confirms it. 



D 



