136 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



much more rapid easterly motion. Therefore, as tlie 

 current gets farther and farther north, the effect of the 

 easterly motion thus imparted to it begins to show 

 itself more and more, until the current is gradually 

 changed from a northeasterly to an almost .easterly 

 stream. The process is the exact converse of that by 

 which the air-currents from the north gradually change 

 into the northwesterly trade- winds as they get farther 

 south. 



But it is further remarked that as the current 

 passes out beyond the shelter of Newfoundland, it is 

 impinged upon by those cold currents from the arctic 

 seas which are known to be continually flowing out 

 of Baffin's Bay and down the eastern shores of Green- 

 land ; and it is contended that these currents suffice, 

 not merely to break up the Gulf current, but so to 

 cool its waters that these could produce no effect upon 

 the climate of Great Britain if they ever reached its 

 neighborhood. 



Here, again, we must remark that we are dealing 

 with no new discovery. Captain Maury has already 

 remarked upon this peculiarity. " At the very season 

 of the year," he says, " when the Gulf Stream is rush- 

 ing in greatest volume through the Straits of Florida, 

 and hastening to the north with the greatest rapidity, 

 there is a cold stream from Baffin's Bay, Labrador, 

 and the coasts of the north, running south with equal 

 velocity. .... One part of it underruns the Gulf 



