GJJLF STREAM, CLIMATES, AND COMMERCE. 67 



navigation than the approaches of the North American coast in 

 Using the Gulf wintcr. Before the warmth of the Gulf Stream was 

 Stream iu wiuter. Jjnown, R vojago at this scason from Em'ope to New 

 England, New York, and even to the Capes of the Delaware or 

 Chesapeake, was many times more trying, difficult, and dangerous 

 than it now is. In making this part of the coast, vessels are fi'e- 

 quently met by snow-storms and gales which mock the seaman's 

 strength and set at naught his skill. In a little while his bark 

 becomes a mass of ice ; with her crew frosted and helpless, she 

 remains obedient only to her helm, and is kept away for the Gulf 

 Stream. After a few hours' run, she reaches its edge, and almost 

 at the next bound passes from the midst of winter into a sea at 

 summer heat. Now the ice disappears from her apparel : the 

 sailor bathes his stiffened limbs in tepid waters ; feeling himself 

 invigorated and refreshed with the genial warmth about him, he 

 realizes, out there at sea, the fable of Antseus and his mother 

 Earth. He rises up, and attempts to make his port again, and is 

 again, perhaps, as rudely met and beat back from the north-Vv'est ; 

 but each time that he is driven off from the contest, he comes forth 

 from this stream, like the ancient son of Neptune, stronger and 

 stronger, until after many days, his freshened strength prevails, 

 and he at last triumphs, and enters his haven in safety, though in 

 this contest he sometimes falls to rise no more, for it is terrible. 

 Many ships annually foimder in these gales ; and I might name 

 instances, for they are not uncommon, in which vessels bound to 

 Norfolk or Baltimore, with their crews enervated in tropical climates, 

 have encountered, as far dovm. as the Capes of Virginia, snow-storms 

 that have driven them back into the Gulf Stream time and again, 

 and have kept them out for forty, fifty, and even for sixty days, 

 trying to make an anchorage. 



185. Nevertheless, the presence of the warm waters of the Gulf 

 p.uTiTiin- south to Stream, with their summer heat in mid-winter, oif 

 spend the winter, ^j^g sliores of Ncw England, is a great boon to navi- 

 gation. At this season of the year especially, the number of 

 wrecks and the loss of life along the Atlantic sea-front are fright- 

 ful. The month's average of wrecks has been as high as three a 

 day. How many escape by seeking refuge from the cold in the 

 warm waters of the Gulf Stream is matter of conjectm-e. Suffice 

 it to say, that before their temperature was known, vessels thus 

 distressed knew of no place of reftige short of the West Indies ; 

 and the newspapers of that day — Erankhn's Pennsylvania Gazette 



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