60 EFFECT OF GULF STREAM ON NAVIGATION. 



on navigation. In former times, when men re- 

 garded the ocean as a great watery waste utterly 

 ignorant of the exquisite order and harmonious 

 action of all the varied substances and conditions 

 which prevail in the sea, just as much as on the 

 land they committed themselves to the deep as to 

 a blind chance, and took the storms and calms they 

 encountered as their inevitable fate, which they had 

 no means' of evading. Ascertaining, as well as they 

 could from the imperfect charts of those days, the 

 position of their desired haven, they steered straight 

 for it through fair weather and foul, regarding in- 

 terruptions and delays as mere unavoidable matters 

 of course. 



But when men began to study the causes and 

 effects of the operation of those elements in the 

 midst of which they dwelt, they soon perceived that 

 order reigned where before they had imagined that 

 confusion revelled ; and that, by adapting their 

 operations to the ascertained laws of Providence, 

 they could, even upon the seemingly unstable sea, 

 avoid dangers and delays of many kinds, and often- 

 times place themselves in highly favourable cir- 

 cumstances. Navigators no longer dash recklessly 

 into the Gulf Stream, and try to stem its tide, as 

 they did of yore ; but. as circumstances require, 

 they either take advantage of the counter-currents 

 which skirt along it, or avail themselves of the 

 warm climate which it creates even in the midst 

 of winter. 



