ANNOTATION AND ADDITIONS. 161 



reaches the westernmost of the Azores it divides into two 

 branches, one of which, at least at certain seasons, advances 

 towards Ireland and Norway, and the other towards the 

 Canaries and the West Coast of Africa. This Atlantic 

 rotatory movement, (described by me in more detail in the 

 first volume of my Voyage to the Equinoctial Regions), 

 explains the possibility of trunks of South , American and 

 West Indian trees being carried, in spite of the trade winds, 

 to the coasts of the Canary Islands, and stranded there. I 

 have made many experiments on the temperature of the Gulf 

 Stream in the vicinity of the Banks of Newfoundland. The 

 Stream brings the warmer water of lower latitudes into more 

 northern regions with much rapidity, and I have thus found 

 its temperature two or three degrees of Reaumur (5 to 7 

 Pah.) higher than that of the adjacent unmoved masses of 

 water, which form as it were the banks of the warm 

 oceanic river. 



The flying fish of the tropics (Exocetus volitans) ac- 

 companies the warm water of the Gulf Stream far into the 

 temperate zone. Floating sea-weed (Eucus natans), chiefly 

 taken up by the stream in the Gulf of Mexico, shews when 

 a ship is entering the current, and the arrangement of the 

 branches of the sea- weed shews the direction of the move- 

 ment of the water. The mainmast of the English ship of 

 war, the Tilbury, destroyed by fire on the coast of San 

 Domingo, was carried by the Gulf Stream to the north coast 

 of Scotland. Even casks filled with palm oil, the remains 

 of the cargo of a ship wrecked off Cape Lopez on the coast 



VOL. I. M 



