IS THE GULF STREAM A MYTH? 129 



case. Captain Maury states that, ' With the view of 

 ascertaining the average number of days during the 

 your that the north-east trade-winds of the Atlantic 

 operate upon the currents between twenty-five degrees 

 north latitude and the equator, log-books containing 

 no less than 380,284 observations on the force and 

 direction of the wind in that ocean were examined. 

 The data thus afforded were carefully compared and 

 discussed. The results show that within these lati- 

 tudes and on the average the wind from the north- 

 east is in excess of the winds from the south-west only 

 111 days out of the 365. Now, can the north-east 

 trades,' he pertinently asks, f by blowing for less than 

 one-third of the time, cause the Gulf Stream to run 

 all the time, and without varying its velocity either to 

 their force or to their prevalence ?' 



And besides this, we have to consider that no part 

 of the Gulf Stream flows strictly before the trade- 

 winds. Where the current flows most rapidly, namely, 

 in the Narrows of Bernini, it sets against the wind, and 

 for hundreds of miles after it enters the Atlantic f it 

 runs,' says Maury, 'right in the "wind's eye."' It 

 must be remembered that a current of air directed 

 with considerable force against the surface of still 

 water has not the power of generating a current which 

 can force its way far through the resisting fluid. If 

 this were so, we might understand how the current, 

 originating in sub-tropical regions, could force its way 

 onward after the moving force had ceased to act upon 

 it, and even carry the waters of the current right 



