70 PHYSICAL GEOGEAPHY OF THE SEA, AND ITS METEOEOLOGT, 



warmtli of the Gulf Stream was known, a voyage at this season 

 from Europe to New England, New York, and even to the Capes 

 of the Delaw^are or Chesapeake, was many times more trying, 

 difficult, and dangerous than it now is. In making this part of 

 the coast, vessels are frequently met by snow-storms and gales 

 w^hich mock the seaman's strength and set at naught his skill. 

 In a little wdiile 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' inin, 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 disap- 

 pears from her apparel : the sailor bathes his stiffened limbs in 

 tepid waters ; feeling himself invigorated and refreshed wath 

 the genial warmth about him, he realizes, out there at sea, the 

 fable of Antaeus 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-west ; 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 some- 

 times falls to rise no more, for it is terrible. Many ships annually 

 founder in these gales ; and I might name instances, for they are 

 not rmcommon, in which vessels bound to Norfolk or Baltimore, 

 with their crews enervated in tropical climates, have encountered, 

 as far do^pi 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. Munning south to spend the ivinter. — Nevertheless, the 

 presence of the warm waters of the Gulf Stream, wdth their 

 summer heat in mid-winter, off the shores of New England, is a 

 great boon to navigation. At this season of the year especially, 

 the number of wa-ecks and the loss of life along the Atlantic sea- 

 front are frightful. 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 

 conjecture. Suffice it to saj^, that before their temperature was 

 known, vessels thus distressed knew of no place of refuge short 

 of the AVcst Indies; and the newspapers of that day — Franklin's 

 Pennsylvania Gazette among them — inform us that it was no 

 uncommon occurrence for vessels bound for the Capes of the 



