THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN. 33 



in their picture-books as one of the living, beautiful facts of 

 God's creation !" 



Reasoning much in this way, Jack takes a landsman's 

 theories with a grain of allowance, deciding that much 

 learning tends to madness. His own philosophy is some- 

 times astonishing certainly original; and I may cite the 

 theory of the Gulf Stream proposed by Mr. Burrows, our 

 Mexican third mate, as an example. He started our green- 

 horns on a new track, by declaring the old theory of a con- 

 centration of Atlantic currents insufficient to account for all 

 the phenomena attending this stream, and also that the in- 

 fluence of the north-east trade-wind blowing into the Gulf 

 of Mexico was incompetent to produce such a result ; for, 

 said he, the violent interruptions of contrary gales and hur- 

 ricanes would not affect the general velocity or volume of 

 the stream. 



" The fact is," said Burrows, very learnedly, " there is an 

 under-ground channel between the Pacific and the Gulf of 

 Mexico, through which a great river of the warm water of 

 the Pacific is poured to the lower level of the cool Atlantic. 

 In evidence, the pretty weed which floats in great fields in 

 the Gulf Stream is found growing on the Pacific shore of 

 the continent, and not on the eastern side. To be sure, 

 great masses are met north of the islands, but it is the bruised, 

 half-killed weed which has passed north in the stream and 

 has been swept into the great return eddy. The little crabs 

 and the peculiar creeping fish found in the weed belong to 

 the Pacific shore. But the best reason is the fact that 

 whales do pass from sea to sea in a time too short to allow of 

 the long journey around Cape Horn. Whaling skippers tell 

 of sperm-whales that have been killed in the Pacific carry- 

 ing in fresh "wounds the bright irons bearing the stamp of 

 ships then cruising in the Atlantic. On after comparison 



of the logs, it became apparent that but few days elapsed 



2* 



