CHAPTER IY. 



THE GULF STREAM ITS NATURE CAUSE ILLUSTRATION EFFECT 

 OF SMALL TOWERS UNITED ADVENTURES OF A PARTICLE OP 

 WATER EFFECT OF GULF STREAM ON CLIMATE ITS COURSE IN- 

 FLUENCE ON NAVIGATION SARGASSO SEA: SCIENTIFIC EFFORTS 

 OF PRESENT DAY WIND AND CURRENT CHARTS EFFECTS ON 

 COMMERCE CAUSE OF STORMS INFLUENCE OF GULF STREAM 

 ON MARINE ANIMALS. 



1 all the varied motions of the sea, the most 

 important, perhaps, as well as the most 

 wonderful, is the Gulf Stream. This 

 mighty current has been likened by Maury to a 

 " river in the ocean. In the severest droughts it 

 never fails, and in the mightiest floods it never 

 overflows. Its banks and its bottom are of cold 

 water, while its current is of warm. It takes its 

 rise in the Gulf of Mexico (hence its name), and 

 empties into the arctic seas. Its current is more 

 rapid than the Mississippi or the Amazon, and its 

 volume more than a thousand times greater." 



This great current is of the most beautiful indigo- 

 blue colour as far out as the Carolina coasts ; and its 

 waters are so distinctly separated from those of the 



