CURRENCY CURRENTS. 



569 



colour, size, and quality. Some are smooth, and others 

 hairy. Some are red others green, and others yel- 

 low or amber-colouied. Wild gooseberries are 

 greatly inferior in size to those which are cultivated 

 in gardens. 



CURRENCY. See Circulating Medium. 



CURRENTS, in the ocean, are continual move- 

 ments of its waters in a particular direction. In lat. 

 39 N., Ion. 13 40' W., we begin to feel the effects 

 of the current which flows from the Azores to the 

 straits of Gibraltar and the Canaries. Between the 

 tropics, from Senegal to the Caribbean sea, the gene- 

 ral current, and that longest known flows from east 

 to west. Its average rapidity is from nine to ten 

 nautical miles in forty-two hom*s. It is this current 

 which is known by the name of equatorial current. It 

 appears to be caused by the impulse which the trade- 

 winds give to the surface of the water. In the chan- 

 nel which the Atlantic has hollowed between Guiana 

 and Guinea, under the meridian of 18 or 21 from 

 8 or 9 to 2 or 3 N. lat., where the trade-winds 

 are often interrupted by winds which blow from the 

 south and south-west, the equatorial current is less 

 uniform in its direction. Near the coast of Africa, 

 vessels are often drawn to the south-east, whilst near 

 the bay of All-Saints and cape St Augustine, upon 

 the coast of America, the general direction of the 

 waters is interrupted by a particular current, the 

 effects of which extend from cape St Roche to Trinity 

 island. It flows towards the north-west, at the rate 

 of one foot, or one foot five inches a second. The 

 equatorial current is felt, although slightly, even be- 

 yond the tropic, in latitude 28 north. In the basin 

 of the Atlantic ocean, six or 700 leagues from the 

 coast of Africa, vessels, whose course is from Europe 

 to the West Indies, find their' progress accelerated 

 before they arrive at the torrid zone. Farther north, 

 between the parallels of Teneriffe and Ceuta, in lon- 

 gitude 44 to 46 W.,no uniform motion is observed. 

 A zone of 140 leagues separates the equatorial cur- 

 rent from the great mass of water flowing to the 

 east, which is distinguished by its elevated tempera- 

 ture, and of which we shall now speak particularly. 

 The equatorial current impels the waters of the At- 

 lantic ocean towards the Musquito shore and the coast 

 of Honduras, in the Caribbean sea. The new conti- 

 nent opposes this current ; the waters flow to the 

 north-west, and passing into the gulf of Mexico, by 

 the strait which is formed by cape Catoche (Yuca- 

 tan) and cape St Antoine (Cuba), they follow the 

 windings of the American coast to the shallows west 

 of the southern extremity of Florida. Then the 

 current turns again to the north, flowing into the 

 Bahama channel. In the month of May, 1804, A. 

 von Humboldt observed in it a rapidity of five feet 

 a second, although the north wind blew violently. 

 Under the parallel of cape Canaveral, the current 

 flows to the north-east. Its rapidity is then some- 

 times five nautical miles an hour. This current, called 

 the gulf stream, is known by the elevated temperature 

 of its waters, by their great saltness, by their indigo- 

 blue colour, by the train of sea weed which covers 

 their surface, and by the heat of the surrounding at- 

 mosphere, which is very perceptible in winter. Its 

 rapidity diminishes towards the north, at the same 

 time that its breadth increases. Near the Bahama 

 bank, the breadth is 15 leagues; in lat. 28 30' N. 

 it is seventeen leagues, and, under the parallel of 

 Charleston, from forty to fifty leagues. To the east 

 of the port of Boston, and under the meridian of Ha- 

 lifax, the current is almost eighty marine leagues in 

 breadth. There It turns suddenly to the east, and 

 grazes the southern extremity of the great bank of 

 Newfoundland. The waters of this bank have a 

 temperature of from 8" 7 to 10 centigrade (7 to 



8 R., 16 to 18 Fahr.), which offers a striking co 

 trast to the waters of the torrid zone, impelled to the 

 north by the gulf stream, and the temperature of 

 which is from 21 to 22 5' (17 to 18 R., 38" to 

 40o Fahr.). The waters of the bank are 16 9' 

 Fahr. colder than those of the neighbouring ocean, 

 and these are 5<> 4' Fahr. colder than those of the 

 current. They cannot be equalized, because each 

 has a cause of heat or cold which is peculiar to it, 

 and of which the influence is permanent. From the 

 bank of Newfoundland to the Azores, the gulf stream 

 flows to the E. or E. S. E. The waters still preserve 

 there a part of the impulse received in the strait 

 of Florida. Under the meridian of the islands of 

 Corvo and Flores, the current has a breadth of 

 160 leagues. In lat. 33, the equatorial current 

 approaches very near the gulf stream. From the 

 Azores, the current flows towards Gibraltar, the 

 island of Madeira, and the Canaries. South of that 

 island, the current flows to the S. E. and S. S. E., to- 

 wards the coast of Africa. In lat. 25" and 26, the 

 current flows first S., then S. W. Cape Blanc ap- 

 pears to influence this direction, and in its latitude 

 the waters mingle with the great current of the tro- 

 pics. 



Blagden, Benjamin Franklin, and Jonathan Wil- 

 liams first made known the elevated temperature of 

 the gulf stream, and the coldness of the shallows, 

 where the lower strata unite with the upper, upon 

 the borders or edges of the bank. A. von Humboldt 

 collected much information, to enable him to trace, 

 upon his chart of the Atlantic ocean, the course of 

 this current. The gulf stream cjianges its place and 

 direction according to the season. Its force and its 

 direction are modified, in high latitudes, by the vari- 

 able winds of the temperate zone, and the collection 

 of ice at the north pole. A drop of water of the 

 current would take two years and ten months, to re- 

 turn to the place from which it should depart. A 

 boat, not acted on by the wind, would go from the 

 Canaries to the coast of Caracas in thirteen months ; 

 in ten months, would make the tour of the gulf of 

 Mexico ; and, in forty or fifty-days, would go from 

 Florida to the bank of Newfoundland. The gulf 

 stream furnished to Christopher Columbus indications 

 of the existence of land to the west. This current 

 had carried upon the Azores, the bodies of two men 

 of an unknown race, and pieces of bamboo of enor- 

 mous size. In lat. 45 or 50 near Bonnet Flamancl, 

 an arm of the gulf stream flows from the S. W. to 

 the N. E., toward the coasts of Europe. It deposits 

 upon the coasts of Ireland and Norway trees and 

 fruits belonging to the torrid zone. Remains of a 

 vessel (the Tilbury), burnt at Jamaica, were found 

 on the coast of Scotland. It is likewise this river of 

 the Atlantic, which annually throws the fruits of the 

 West Indies upon the shore of Norway. 



The causes of currents are very numerous. The 

 waters may be put in motion by an external impulse, 

 by a difference of heat and saltness, by the inequality 

 of evaporation in different latitudes, and by the change 

 in the pressure at different points of the surface of 

 the ocean. The existence of cold strata, which have 

 been met with at great depths in low latitudes, proves 

 the existence of a lower current, which runs from the 

 pole to the equator. It proves, likewise, that saline 

 substances are distributed in the ocean, hi a manner 

 not to destroy the effect produced by different tem- 

 peratures. The polar currents, in the two hemis- 

 pheres, tend to the east, probably on account of the 

 uniformity of west winds in high latitudes. It is very 

 probable that there may be, in some places, a double 

 local current ; the one above, near the surface of the 

 water, the other at the bottom. Several facts seem 

 to confirm this hypothesis, which was first proved by 



