IS THE GULF STREAM A MYTH? 143 



velocity four times as great, we still want an air-current 

 two hundred times as large as the water-current. And 

 the former must give up the whole of its motion, which, 

 in the case of so elastic a substance as air, would hardly 

 happen, the upper air being unlikely to be much 

 affected by the motion of the lower. 



But this is far from being all. If the trade-winds 

 blew throughout the year, we might be disposed to 

 recognize their influence upon the Gulf Stream as a 

 paramount, if not the sole one. But this is not the 

 case. Captain Maury states that, " with the view of 

 ascertaining the average number of days during the 

 year that the northeast trade-winds of the Atlantic 

 operate upon the currents between 25- 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 latitudes and 

 on the average the wind from the northeast is in 

 excess of the winds from the southwest only 111 

 days out of the 365. Now, can the northeast trades," 

 he pertinently asks, " 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- 



