Rivers in the Sea 



For a while it hugs the American coast ; but, 

 happily for Europe, it forsakes this friend of its 

 youth, and wanders to the north-eastward across 

 the Atlantic. 



To call it a " river " is no mere fiction of 

 speech. Near Halifax the separation between 

 warm and cold water is so sharp, that those on 

 board a ship may know what latitude they have 

 reached, on entering or leaving the stream, by 

 simply dipping a bucket in the water and taking 

 the temperature. Literally the Gulf Stream is 

 a warm river, flowing over a bed of cold water, 

 with cold-water banks. 



So far as Cape Hatteras the stream clings 

 to its early friend ; and after that the American 

 coast knows it no more, being left to the mercies 

 of a very different acquaintance. An icy stream 

 flows southward from the far north, clinging to 

 the coast of North America, while we in western 

 Europe benefit by the presence of the warm 

 current which travels over to us. This stream 

 has been described as forming a "cold wall" to 

 the mild Gulf Stream. 



Fan-like, the Gulf Stream spreads as it 

 journeys, growing gradually wider and wider, 

 shallower and shallower, cooler and cooler — yet 

 the last so slowly that, even off the coast of 



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