54 



daily carried off by the Grulf Stream from those regions, and dis- 

 charged over the Atlantic, is sufficient to raise mountains of iron 

 from zero to the melting-point, and to keep in fioY/ fr'om them a 

 molten stream of metal greater in Yolimie than the waters daily dis- 

 charged from the Mississij^pi Eiver. 



156. Who, therefore, can calculate the benign influence of this 

 Its benign influences, wonderful cmTcut upou the climatc of the South? 

 In the pursuit of this subject, the mind is led from nature up to 

 the great Architect of nature ; and what mind Yvill not the study of 

 this subject fill with profitable emotions? Unchanged and un- 

 changing alone, of all crea^ted things, the ocean is the great emblem 

 of its everlasting Creator. " He treadeth upon the waves of the sea," 

 and is seen in the wonders of the deep. Yea, " He calleth for 

 its waters, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth." In 

 obedience to this call, the aqueous portion of om^ planet preserves 

 its beautiful system of circidation. By it heat and warmth are dis- 

 pensed to the extra-tropical regions : clouds and rain are sent to 

 refresh the dry land ; and by it cooling streams are brought from 

 Polar Seas to temper the heat of the torrid zone. At the depth of 

 two hundred and forty fathoms the temperatiu:e of the currents 

 setting into the Caribbean Sea has been found as low as 48°, while 

 that of the sm-face was 85°. Another cast with three himdi'ed and 

 eighty-six fathoms gave 43° below against 83° at the smface. The 

 hurricanes of those regions agitate the sea to great depths ; that of 

 1780 tore rocks up from the bottom seven fathoms deep, and cast 

 them ashore. They therefore cannot fail to bring to the smface 

 portions of the cooler water below. 



157. At the very bottom of the Gulf Stream, when its smface 

 bStom'lJf theGuif ^emperatm^e was 80°, the deep-sea thermometer of 

 sireani. ' tho Coast SuTvcy has recorded a temperature as low 

 as 35° Fahrenheit. These cold waters doubtless come do^ii from 

 the north to replace the warm water sent through the Gulf Stream 

 to moderate the cold of Spitzbergen ; for within the Arctic Cfrcle 

 the temperatm-e at coiTesponding depths off the shores of that island 

 is said to be only one degree colder than in the Caribbean Sea, while 

 on the shores of Labrador and in the Polar Seas the temperatui'e of 

 the water beneath the ice was invariably found by Lieutenant De 

 Haven at 28°, or 4° below the melting-point of fresh-water ice. 

 Captain Scoresby relates, that on the coast of Greenland, in lati- 

 tude 72°, the temperature of the air was 42° ; of the water, 34° ; 

 and 29° at the depth of one hundred and eighteen fathoms. He 



