CURRENTS OF THE SEA. 195- 



and becomes the centre of one of the most remarkable storm- 

 reo-ions in the world. My friend and fellow-labonrcr, Lieut. 

 Andrau of the Dutch Navy, has made the storms upon these 

 banks a specialty for study. He has pointed out from the 

 abstract logs at Utrecht the existence there of some curious and 

 interesting atmospherical phenomena to which this body of warm 

 water gives rise. The storms that it calls up come rushing 

 from the westward ; — sweeping along parallel with the coast of 

 Africa, they curve aloug it. Though so near tlje land, they 

 seldom reach it. They march into these warm waters with 

 furious speed ; reaching them with a low barometer, they pause 

 and die out. That officer has conferred a boon upon the Indiamen 

 of all flags, for he has taught them how to avoid these dreadful 

 winter storms of the Cape. 



393. Tlie currents and drift of the Indian Ocean. — There is some- 

 times, if not always, another exit of warm water from the Indian 

 Ocean. It seems to be an overflow of the great intertropical 

 caldron of India ; — seeking to escape thence, it works its way pole- 

 ward more as a drift than as a current. It is to the Mozambique- 

 current what the northern flow of warm waters in the Atlantic 

 (§ 141) is to the Gulf Stream. This Indian overflow is very 

 large. The best indication of it is afforded by the sperm whale 

 curve (Plate IX.). This overflow finds its way south midway 

 between Africa and Australia, and appears to lose itself in 

 passing round a sort of Sargasso Sea, thinly strewed with patches 

 of weed. Nor need we be surprised at such a vast flow of warm 

 water as these three currents indicate from the Indian Ocean, 

 when we recollect that this ocean (§ 392) is land-locked on the 

 north, and that the temperature of its waters is frequently as 

 high as 90° Fahr. There must, therefore, be immense volumes 

 of water flowing into the Indian Ocean to supply the waste 

 created by these warm currents. 



394. The ice-hearing currents from the Antarctic regions. — On either 

 side of this warm current that escapes from the intertropical 

 parts of the Indian Ocean, but especially on the Australian side, 

 an ice-bearing current (Plate IX.) is found wending its way 

 from the Antarctic regions with supplies of cold water to modify 

 climates and restore the aqueous equilibrium in that iiart of the 

 world. There is a general drift up into the South Atlantic of 

 ice-bearing waters from Antarctic seas. The icebergs brought 

 thence, being often very large and high, are set to the eastward 



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