78 THE OCEAX. 



ClIAPTEE IX. 



CURRENTS OF THE SOUTH ATLANTIC AND THE INDIAN OCEAN. — DOUBLE EDDY 

 OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 



The circuit of tlie waters which occurs to the south of the equator, 

 ill the southern basin of the xVtlantic, is much less known than that 

 of which tlic Gulf-stream forms a part, but ail that has been observed 

 of it by navigators proves that the movements of the liquid mass are 

 analogous in the two hemispheres. A current of cold water, coming 

 from the Antarctic seas, dashes against the LaguUas Bank, to the 

 south of the African continent, and divides into two branches, one of 

 which re-enters the Indian Ocean, while the other flows along the 

 western coast of Africa, penetrates into the Gulf of Guinea, and, in con- 

 sequence of the motion of the earth, bends towards the west in a wide 

 semi-circle. To the south of the Gape Yerde Islands, the waters coming 

 from the southern seas join those which flow from the Icy Sea of the 

 north, and uniting into one river of 500 to 1000 miles wide, move 

 slowly in the direction of South America and the Antilles. The 

 greater mass of water approaches the continent to the north of Cape 

 St. Roque, the advanced promontory of Brazil, and flowing to the 

 north-west along the coasts of Guiana and Columbia, enters the 

 Caribbean Sea, there to form the Gulf-stream. A less considerable 

 fraction of the equatorial current bends to the south of Cape St. 

 Eoque, and follows the Brazilian coast-line to the south-west. But 

 in descending towards latitudes nearer and nearer the southern pole, 

 the warmer current from the equator incessantly gains on the rota- 

 tory movement of the earth ; consequently, it bends more to the 

 south than to the south-east, and forming a sort of gulf- stream in an 

 opposite direction, it strikes the polar current to the east of the 

 Falkland Isles, whose position in the southern hemisphere corre- 

 sponds to that of Newfoundland in the northern hemisphere. There 

 the warm current, after having deposited drift-wood, taken from 

 the Brazilian coast, on the shores of the Falkland Islands, sinks 

 below the lighter strata of the glacial current ; while the latter directs 



