80 THE OCEAN. 



flows to the soutli-west, and under tlie name of the Mozambique cur- 

 rent, passes between the island of Madagascar and the continent, 

 touches the edge of the great submarine bank of Lagullas, and 

 spreads into the Antarctic Ocean, after having mingled a part of its 

 waters in the great whirlpool of the Atlantic. At the part where it 

 is narrowest, the Mozambique current is almost as rapid as the Gulf- 

 stream, and moves with a speed of about 4 J miles an hour. In the 

 centre of the eddy in the waters of the Indian Ocean, as in the North 

 Atlantic, whole meadows of seaweed spread over the calm waters. 



The circuit of tlie currents commences in the great Pacific Ocean 

 in the same manner as in the other basins. An immense river of cold 

 water of unknown breadth strikes the island of Magellan, at the south 

 of America, and divides into two partial currents, one of which, pene- 

 trating into the Atlantic to the cast of the Falkland Isles where ice 

 never comes, joins in tlie great round of watei-s between Africa and 

 Brazil, while the other flows directly to the north along the coasts of 

 Patagonia, Chili, and Peru ; this is Ilumboldt^s current, thus named 

 after the celebrated traveller who first recognized its existence. It 

 carries with it large icebergs often laden with stones and fragments 

 that have fallen from the Antarctic mountains, and by the coldness 

 of its waters produces a remarkable lowering of the temperature in all 

 the countries whose shores it bathes. This liquid mass, which has a 

 depth of no less than G70 fathoms on the coast of Chili, gives to the 

 vegetation of the country a remarkable analogy with that of St. 

 Helena, which at a distance of 4000 miles is washed by another 

 branch of the Antarctic current. Humboldt and Duperrey state, 

 that off the coasts of Callao and Guayaquil, that is to say, in one of 

 the driest climates and most exposed to the rays of the sun, the- cur- 

 rent is on an average at from 59^ to GO'^.Fahr., while the adjacent seas 

 are about 20^ warmer. Not a branch of coral can take root on the 

 rocks and shores washed by this current of cold water : the polar 

 current changes everything on its passage, the flora, fauna, climate, 

 and even the history of mankind. If the air was not constantly 

 refreshed by the contact of cold water coming from the Pole, Peru, 

 which is so rarely watered by rain, would be transformed into another 

 desert of Sahara, and human life would become almost impossible 

 there. By this current, too, the distances are notably diminished, 

 and Valparaiso, Coquimbo, Arica, Callao are, in reality, less distant 

 from Europe than they appear on the map ; for after having rounded 

 Cape Horn, the ships sailing along the western coasts of South 

 America, are carried about 15 to 20 miles a dav bv this current. 



