OCEAN CURRENTS 157 



In the Florida Channel there are periodic variations in 

 the direction and strength of the current, and according to 

 Pillsbury these are connected with the declination of the 

 moon; with greater declination the current is bent to the left, 

 and with less declination to the ri-ht, of the normal. With 

 higher declination the current broadens; with lower declination 

 it contracts. With the broadening of the current there is a 

 decrease of temperature; with the contraction an increase, the 

 former being clue to the rise of deep water to the surface. The 

 axis of the stream is, at high declination, 16 and at low declina- 

 tion 34 sea-miles from Cuba, north of Havana ; in the narrows 

 it lies at high declination 7, at low declination 15, sea-miles 

 east of Fowey Lighthouse. 



In the narrows the Florida Stream is 30 miles wide; after 

 its exit from the Channel in the neighbourhood of Cape 

 Canaveral it is 60 miles and at Charleston from 120 to 150 

 miles across. This steady broadening of the current as it 

 proceeds to the north takes place for the most part in an 

 easterly direction ; to the west the edge of the current keeps 

 close to the 2OO-metre line. Here the boundary is so distinct 

 that it is plainly visible from the deck of a ship. As the stream 

 widens its velocity decreases. In the latitude of New York, 

 where the current runs easterly, the velocity is 72 miles on 

 occasion, but the average is more like 48 miles per day. 

 Farther east it is less than 30. Off the coast of North America 

 the Florida Stream can only be determined to 45 W. L. 

 that is, off the eastern edge of the Newfoundland Banks. 

 Even in the latitude of Cape Hatteras alternate warm and cool 

 currents are met with. These cold bands are not counter- 

 currents of Arctic water running south-\vest or west, -but 

 branches of the Antilles Current which, running outside the 

 Bahama Islands, unite or mingle with the Florida Current. 

 The latter is relatively warmer than the Antilles Current. 

 Both run together for a while, the Florida Current above the 

 other. The strength of the Florida Current wanes appreciably 

 to the eastward of 60 W. Lat. 



