50 niTSIOAL GEOGRAPnY OF THE SEA, AND ITS METEOROLOGY. 



biquo eiuTcnt, whicli runs south along the east coast of Africa 

 from the Indian Ocean, and with the cooler current setting to 

 the north on the Australian side of the same sea. Between 

 these there is a sargasso on the left ; for it is in the southern 

 hemisphere. 



138. Tlieir ijosition conforms to the theory. — Again, there is in the 

 South Pacific a flow of equatorial waters to the Antarctic on the 

 east of Australia, and of Antarctic waters (Humboldt's current) 

 to the north, along the western shores of South America ; and, 

 according to this iDrinciple, there ought to be another sargasso 

 somewhere between New Zealand and the coast of Chili. (See 

 Plate IX.) 



139. TJie discovery of a new sargasso. — To test the correctness of 

 this view, I requested Lieut. Warley to overhaul our sea-joumals 

 for notices of kelp and drift matter on the passage from Australia 

 to Cape Horn and the Chincha Islands. He did so, and found it 

 abounding in small patches, with " many birds about," between 

 the parallels of 40° and 60° south, the meridians of 140° and 

 178° west. This sargasso is directly south of the Georgian 

 Islands, and is, perhaps, less abundantly supplied with drift 

 matter, less distinct in outline, and less permanent in position 

 than any one of the others. 



140. One in the South Atlantic. — There is no warm current, or if 

 one, a very feeble one, flowing out of the South Atlantic. Most 

 of the drift matter borne upon the ice-bearing current into that 

 sea finds its way to the equator, and then into the veins which 

 give volume to the Gulf Stream, and supplj^ the sargasso of the 

 North Atlantic with extra quantities of drift. The sargassos of 

 the South Atlantic are therefore small. The formations and 

 physical relations of sargassos wdll be again alluded to in Chapter 

 XVIII. 



141. TJie large volume of imrm ivater outside of the Gulf Stream. — 

 Let us return (§ 129) to this great expanse of warm water which, 

 coming from the torrid zone on the south-western side of the 

 Atlantic, drifts along to the north on the outside of the Gulf 

 Stream. Its velocity is slow, not sufficient to give it the name 

 of current ; it is a drift, or what sailors call a ' ' set." By the 

 time this water reaches a parallel of 35° or 40° it has parted 

 ■with a good deal of its intertropic d lie at : consequent upon this 

 change in temperature is a change in specific gravity also, and 

 by reason of this change, as well as by the difficulties of crossing 



