IS THE GULF STREAM A MYTH? 1 1/ 



hundred yards, we could scarcely assign to the wide 

 current in the mid-Atlantic a greater depth than ten 

 or twelve yards. This depth seems altogether out of 

 proportion to the enormous lateral extension of the 

 current. 



But besides that even this consideration would not 

 suffice to disprove the existence of a current in the 

 mid-Atlantic, an important circumstance remains to be 

 mentioned. The current in the Narrows flows with 

 great velocity, certainly not less than four or five miles 

 -an hour. As the current grows wider it flows more 

 sedately; and opposite Cape Hatteras its velocity is 

 already reduced to little more than three miles an hour. 

 In the mid-Atlantic the current may be assumed to 

 flow at a rate little exceeding a mile per hour, at the 

 outside. Here, then, we have a circumstance which 

 suffices to remove a large part of the difficulty arising 

 from the narrowness of the Bernini current, and we can 

 at once increase our estimate of the depth of the mid- 

 Atlantic current fivefold. 



But this is not all. It has long been understood 

 that the current which passes out through the Narrows 

 of Bernini corresponds to the portion of the great 

 equatorial current which passes into the Gulf of Mexico 

 between the West Indian Islands. We cannot doubt 

 that the barrier formed by those islands serves to 

 divert a large portion of the equatorial current. The 

 portion thus diverted finds its way, we may assume, 

 along the outside of the West Indian Archipelago, 

 and thus joins the other portion which has in the 



