OCEANIC CURRENTS. 225 



rent moves along northward, it retains a large proportion of the 

 warmth which it had in the Gulf, and is easily recognized from 

 the rest of the ocean by its higher temperature, even as far north 

 as the banks of Newfoundland, where the temperature is from 

 8 to 10 above the surrounding ocean. To the east of Boston 

 and in the meridian of Halifax, the stream is two hundred and 

 seventy-six miles broad. Here it is suddenly turned to the east, 

 its western margin touching the extremity of the great bank of 

 Newfoundland, where the current sends off a branch which pro- 

 ceeds to the north-easf, sometimes depositing tropical fruits and 

 seeds upon the coast of Norway, and the shores of Ireland and 

 the Hebrides. The main current continues to flow and spread 

 out until, in the neighborhood of the Azores, it is about five hun- 

 dred miles in breadth. From the Azores it flows towards the 

 straits of Gibraltar, the island of Madeira, and the Canary isles, 

 along the western shores of Africa as far south as Cape Verd, 

 where it is again deflected by meeting the great equatorial cur- 

 rent flowing from the coast of Guinea to the Brazils. In this 

 manner, according to Humboldt, the waters of the Atlantic are 

 L. carried around in a continual whirlpool, performing a circuit of 

 13,000 miles in about two years and ten months. The branch of 

 the Gulf Stream Which is given off near the banks of Newfound- 

 land, passes northward and eastward by the coast of Scotland and 

 Norway, as far as the North Cape, where, being met by a polar 

 current from Nova Zambia, it is deflected westward along both 

 sides of Spitzbergen ; still influenced by the polar current, it 

 passes along the shores of Greenland to Davis' Straits, where it 

 meets a fourth current from Baffins Bay, which deflects it south- 

 ward towards the banks of Newfoundland, where it again meets 

 the Gulf Stream. Thus two great whirlpools, connected with 

 each other and revolving in opposite directions, touch at the 

 Banks of Newfoundland, which seems to be a bar cast up by 

 their conflicting waters. Branches of the Gulf Stream sent off 

 at the Azores, set from the Bay of Biscay through the English 

 Channel, and through St. George's Channel. The general di- 

 rection of these great currents may be observed on the little chart 

 preceding. Besides these great currents, there are local or tern- 



