ILLUSTRATIONS (24). THE GULF STBEAM. 12J 



from which it arises, moves, as is well known, like the trade 

 wind from east to west. It accelerates the navigation of 

 vessels sailing from the Canary Isles to South America ; while 

 it is nearly impossible to pursue a straight course against the 

 current from Carthagena de Indias to Cumana. This bend 

 to the west, attributed to the trade winds, is accelerated in 

 the Caribbean Sea by a much stronger movement, which 

 originates in a very remote cause, discovered as early as 1560 

 by Sir Humphrey Gilbert,* and confirmed in 1832 by Ren- 

 nell. The Mozambique current, flowing from north to south 

 between Madagascar and the eastern coast of Africa, sets on 

 the Lagullas Bank, and bends to the north of it round the 

 southern point of Africa. After advancing with much violence 

 along the western coast of Africa beyond the equator to the 

 island of St. Thomas, it gives a north-westerly direction to a 

 portion of the waters of the South Atlantic, causing them to 

 strike Cape St. Augustin, and follow the shores of Guiana 

 beyond the mouth of the Orinoco, the Boca del Drago, and 

 the coast of Paria.f The New Continent from the Isthmus of 

 Panama to the northern part of Mexico forms a dam or barrier 

 against the movements of the sea. Owing to this obstruc- 

 tion the current is necessarily deflected in a northerly direc- 

 tion at Veragua, and made to follow the sinuosities of the 

 coast-line from Costa Rica, Mosquitos, Campeche, and 

 Tabasco. The waters which enter the Mexican Gulf between 

 Cape Catoche of Yucatan, and Cape San Antonio de Cuba, 

 force their way back into the open ocean north of the Straits 

 of Bahama, after they have been agitated by a great rota- 

 tory movement between Vera Cruz, Tamiagna, the mouth of 

 the Rio Bravo del Norte, and the Mississippi. Here they 

 form a warm, rapid current, known to mariners as the Gulf 

 Stream, which deflects in a diagonal direction further and 

 further from the shores of North America. Ships bound for 

 this coast from Europe, and uncertain of their geographical 

 longitude, are enabled by this oblique direction of the current 

 to regulate their course as soon as they reach the Gulf Stream 

 by observations of latitude only. The bearings of this 

 current were first accurately determined by Franklin, Wil- 

 liams, and Pownall. 



* Hatluyt, Voyages, vol. iii. p. 14. 



t Rennell, Investigation of the Currents of the Atlantic 

 1832, pp. 96, 136. 



