42 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA. 



to the right, is proportionably as great in the case of a patch of 

 sea-weed as it drifts along the Gulf Stream, as it is in the case of 

 the train of cars as they speed to the north along the iron track of 

 the Hudson Eiver railway, or any other railway that lies north 

 and south. The rails restrain the cars and prevent them from 

 flying off; but there are no rails to restrain the sea-weed, and 

 nothing to prevent the drift-matter of the Gulf Stream from going 

 off in obedience to this force. The slightest impulse tending to 

 turn aside bodies moving freely in water is immediately felt and 

 implicitly obeyed. 



45. It is in consequence of this diurnal rotation that drift-wood 

 coming down the Mississippi is so very apt to be cast upon the 

 west or right bank. This is the reverse of what obtains upon the 

 Gulf Stream, for it flows to the north ; it therefore sloughs off 

 (§ 43) to the east. 



The effect of diurnal rotation upon the winds and upon the cur- 

 rents of the sea is admitted by all — the trade-winds derive their 

 easting from it — it must, therefore, extend to all the matter which 

 these currents bear with them, to the largest iceberg as well as 

 to the merest spire of grass that floats upon the waters, or the 

 minutest organism that the most powerful microscope can detect 

 among the impalpable particles of sea-dust. This effect of diur- 

 nal rotation upon drift w^ill be frequently alluded to in the pages 

 of this work. 



46, In its course to the north, the Gulf Stream gradually trends 

 more and more to the eastward, until it arrives off the Banks of 

 Newfoundland, where its course becomes nearly due east. These 

 banks, it has been thought, deflect it from its proper course, and 

 cause it to take this turn. Examination will prove, I think, that 

 they are an effect, certainly not the cause. It is here that the 

 frigid current already spoken of (§ 11), with its icebergs from the 

 north, ai-e met and melted by the warm waters of the Gulf. Of 

 course the loads of earth, stones, and gravel brought down upon 

 them arc here deposited. Captain Scoresby, far away in the north, 

 counted five hundred icebergs setting out from the same vicinity 

 upon this cold current for the south. Many of them, loaded with 

 earth, have been seen aground on the Banks, This process of 



