THE 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE GULF STREAM. 



Its Color, ^ 2. — Theories, 5. — Capt. Livingston's, 6. — Dr. Franklin's, 7. — Admiral 

 Smyth and Mediterranean Currents, 8. — Trade Winds not the Cause of the Gulf 

 Stream, 9. — Drift of Bottles, 12. — Sargasso Sea, 13. — Hypothetical System of Cur- 

 rents, 19. — Galvanic Properties of the Gulf Stream, 26. — Saltness of ditto, 29. — 

 Effects produced upon Currents by Evaporation, 32. — Gulf Stream Roof-shaped, 

 39. — Effects of Diurnal Rotation upon Running Water, 42. — Course of the Gulf 

 Stream not altered by Nantucket Shoals, 52. — The Trough in the Sea through which 

 the Gulf Stream flows has a Vibratory Motion, 54. — Streaks of Warm and Cold Wa- 

 ter in the Gulf Stream, 57. — Runs up Hill, 59. — A Cushion of Cold W^ater, 60. 



1. There is a river in the ocean. In the severest droughts it 

 never fails, and in the mightiest floods it never overflows. Its 

 banks and its bottoms are of cold water, while its current is of 

 warm. The Gulf of Mexico is its fountain, and its mouth is in 

 the Arctic Seas. It is the Gulf Stream. There is in the world 

 no other such majestic flow of waters. Its current is more rapid 

 than the ]\Iississippi or the Amazon, and its volume more than a 

 thousand times greater. 



2. Its waters, as far out from the Gulf as the Carolina coasts, 

 are of an indigo blue. They are so distinctly marked that their 

 line of junction witli the common sea- water may be traced by the 

 eye. Often one half of the vessel may be perceived floating in 

 Gulf Stream water, while the other half is in common water of the 

 sea ; so sharp is the line, and such the want of affinity between 

 those waters, and such, too, the reluctance, so to speak, oil the part 

 of those of the Gulf Stream to mingle with the common water of 

 the sea. 



