IS THE GULF STREAM A MYTH? 127 



and this fact was considered sufficient to support the 

 strange theory that a river can give birth to an ocean- 

 current. 



' It was easy, however, to overthrow this theory. 

 Captain Livingston showed that the volume of water 

 which is poured out of the Gulf of Mexico in the form 

 of an ocean-stream is more than a thousand times 

 greater than the volume poured into the Gulf by the 

 Mississippi River. 



Having overthrown this old theory of the Gulf 

 Stream, Captain Livingston attempted to set up one 

 which is equally unfounded. He ascribed the current 

 to the sun's apparent yearly motion and the influence 

 he exerts on the waters of the Atlantic. A sort of 

 yearly tide is conceived, according to this theory, to be 

 the true parent of the Gulf current. It need hardly 

 be said, however, that a phenomenon which remains 

 without change through the winter and summer seasons 

 cannot possibly be referred to the operation of such a 

 cause as a yearly tide. 



It is to Dr. Franklin that we owe the first theory of 

 the Gulf Stream which has met with general acceptance. 

 He held that the Gulf Stream is formed by the outflow 

 of waters which have been forced into the Caribbean 

 Sea by the trade-winds : so that the pressure of these 

 winds on the Atlantic Ocean forms, according to Dr. 

 Franklin, the true motive power of the Gulf Stream 

 machinery. According to Maury, this theory has 

 ' come to be the most generally received opinion in the 

 mind of seafaring people.' It supplies a moving force 



