26 THE OCEAN. 



tides of water, for the same reason as those in 

 the glass, to a certain extent, resist the influence 

 of this rotation, and appear to assume a motion 

 in the opposite direction, from east to west. With 

 respect to all the phenomena to be explained, this 

 apparent motion is exactly the same as if it were 

 real, and we shall consider it so. Now, examine 

 a globe, or a map of the Atlantic, and you will setf 

 that this westerly "set" of the equatorial waters, 

 meeting the coast of South America, is slightly 

 turned through the Caribbean Sea, until it strikes 

 the coast of Mexico, which, like an impregnable 

 rampart, opposes its progress. The stream, impelled 

 by the waves behind, must have an outlet, and thu 

 form of the shore drives it round the northern side 

 of the Gulf of Mexico, until it is again bent by tins 

 peninsula of Florida. But here the long island of 

 Cuba meets its southerly course, and, like the hunted 

 deer, headed at every turn, the whole of the broad 

 tide that entered the Gulf, now pent up within the 

 compass of a few leagues, rushes with vast impetus 

 through the only outlet that is open, between Florida 

 and the Bahamas. It is as if we propelled with 

 swiftness against the air a wide funnel, the mouth 

 being outwards, the tube of which was long and 

 tortuous, and which terminated at length nearly at 

 right angles to the mouth: it is easy to imagine 

 that a strong current of air would issue from the 

 tube, exactly as the waters of the Gulf-stream do 

 from their narrow gorge. The waters of the Pa- 

 cific have the same westerly flow, but its force is 

 broken, without being turned, by the vast assem- 



