PROCEEDINGS OF THE POLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION. 609 



Mr. F. A. Morley made the following remarks : 



On the Gulf Stream. 



The cause of that prominent phenomenon, the Gulf stream, and 

 its immense propelling power, lies buried in mystery to this late 

 day, and no sufficient agency has yet been assigned therefor. The 

 theory or explanation offered by Dr. Franklin many years ago, 

 seems to be the most plausible one, and is the one that has been 

 generally accepted ; but it is totally inadequate to produce such a 

 result, and must sooner or later give way to some other explanation. 



The cause of the Gulf Stream, according to Dr. Franklin, is that 

 the waters in the Carribeau Sea are piled up by the trade winds, 

 and from thence escaping through the Florida Straits they are 

 sent out with a momentum sufficient to carry them across the 

 Atlantic. Any person acquainted with the jxction of wind upon 

 water, knows that it only aifects the surface, and that this action 

 is readily compensated by a counter current or " undertow." A 

 piling up or head of water greater than three of four feet, could 

 not be steadily maintained unless all the channels, through which 

 the waters are blown in, were very shallow, which is not the case. 

 It seems too plain to need proof that a discharging velocity of four 

 miles per hour past the capes of Florida could not carry this water to 

 the coast of Norway. Besides, if such were the cause of the Gulf 

 Stream, how are we to account for similar warm water currents in 

 other parts of the earth, where there can be no piling up of the 

 water? There is a warm water current in the open sea east of South 

 Africa, and running southwest from the Indian Ocean. It is further 

 known that there is an immense warm water current running from 

 the Pacific southv/ard, passing near to and to the eastward of the 

 great island of Australia, as it seeks the icy barriers of the Antarctic; 

 also the Chinese or Japan cui-rent, running northward, and much re- 

 sembling the American Gulf Stream. None of these currents are 

 due to accident, such as the piling up of water in a bay or hight 

 of the land. There must be some general law applicable to all 

 these currents. The conviction that present explanations are insuffi- 

 cient, led the speaker to give the subject considerable attention, 

 with the hope of finding one more satisfactory. And he now 

 proposes to show that, in effect, the Gulf Stream has a fall of 

 about 250 feet, and of course that its propelling power is equal to 

 a head of water of that height. 

 [Am. Iast.] mm 



