THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. 199 



This is enough to show what we should have desired as a 

 foreground to the topics of Captain Maury's work. There is 

 undoubtedly much to justify his partiality for the Atlantic as 

 a subject for illustration ; and we shall follow his example 

 by limiting our remarks still more exclusively to what con- 

 cerns this great Ocean a volume itself in the 'physical 

 geography of the sea.' Indeed, our author devotes his first 

 two chapters to a single current of the Atlantic ; but this 

 current, under the name of the Gulf-stream, includes physical 

 conditions so remarkable that we cannot blame the priority 

 thus given to its history. To use his own words : 



There is 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. The 

 Gulf of Mexico is its fountain, and its mouth is in the Arctic Seas. 

 It is the Gulf-stream. There is in the world no other such majestic 

 flow of waters. Its current is more rapid than the Mississippi or the 

 Amazon, and its volume more than a thousand times greater. Its 

 waters, as far out from the Gulf as the Carolina coasts, are of an in- 

 digo blue. They are so distinctly marked, that this line of junction 

 with the common sea- water may be traced by the eye. Often one- 

 half of the vessel may be perceived floating in Gulf-stream water, 

 while the other half is in common water of the sea ; so sharp is the 

 line and such the want of affinity between these waters; and such, 

 too, the reluctance, so to speak, on the part of those of the Gulf- 

 stream to mingle with the common water of the sea. 



This passage delineates, in terms happily chosen, some of 

 the most striking features of this wonderful stream. But 

 there are yet others to be noted ; and we shall dwell some- 

 what in detail on a natural phenomenon thus remarkable : 

 one, moreover, in which we, the people of the British Isles, 

 have a direct and momentous interest, as well in reference 

 to commerce and navigation^ as to its certain and various 

 influences on the climate under which we live. 



The general description of the Gulf-stream, apart from any 

 present question as to its sources, is that of a vast and rapid 



