82 THE OCEAN. 



Nevertlieless it is mucli simpler to admit that this is a nonnal 

 phenomenon, for in the Atlantic Ocean it has also been established 

 that some lateral eddies tend in an opposite direction from the great 

 liquid mass flowing from east to west. 



"When it has arrived at the end of its voyage across the Pacific, the 

 equatorial current must of necessity change its direction. A portion 

 of its waters, driven now in one direction and now in another by the 

 monsoons which succeed one another on the borders of the continents 

 of Asia and Australia, flows into the Indian Ocean by the shallow 

 straits of the East India islands. But the greater mass of the current 

 is thrown back either to the south or to the north, by the resistance 

 of the shores against which it dashes and breaks. The half of the 

 current which strikes the coasts of Australia diverges towards the 

 south, and flows in the direction of the Antarctic lands.- It thus flows 

 in the opposite direction to the polar current, which it finally encounters 

 to the south of New Zealand, and plunges beneath its colder waters 

 which by their freshness are rendered lighter. To the east and 

 north-cast the current from the Antarctic seas completes the enormous 

 circuit described by the waters in the southern basin of the Pacific. 



The other half of the equatorial current, diverted by New Guinea, 

 the Philippines, and that long barrier of islands lying to the east of 

 China, bends gradually towards the north and flows along the outer 

 coasts of Japan. It is the Gidf-stream of the Pacific Ocean, called 

 also Tessan's current, after the navigator who revealed its existence to 

 the savants of Europe. But for centuries, and perhaps thousands of 

 years, the Japanese have known and prized it highly for their coast- 

 navigation. They give it the name of Kuro-Sivo, or " Black River,*' 

 doubtless because of the deep blue of its waters. Less rapid than the 

 Gulf- stream, its advaiice is nevertheless on an average more than 

 1^ mile per hour, and in many places very much exceeds this speed. 

 Before Yeddo its mean temperature is 75 '2' Fahr., that is to say, 

 about 10'' to 12° Fahr. higher than the still waters beside it. Further- 

 more, the Kuro-Sivo, like the Gulf-stream, is composed of liquid 

 bands of unequal temperature flowing beside each other like two 

 distinct rivers in the same bed. 



In passing the largest island of Japan,* the Black River, obedient 

 to the impelling force which the ' rotation of the earth has communi- 

 cated to it under tropical latitudes, already commences to bend 

 towards the north-east, and, spreading over a vast extent, loses in 

 depth what it gains in surface. To the north of Japan, it meets 



♦ De Kerhallet, Considerations stir V Ocean Tacifque. 



