38 



THE OPAL SEA 



The Japa- 

 nese 

 current. 



the discoverer, navigators still thought that no 

 ship could pass through it or get clear of 

 entanglements when once caught in that mesh 

 of yellow-brown Gulf weed. 



The Kuro Sivo or Japanese Current in the 

 Pacific is the counterpart of the Gulf Stream. 

 It starts in substantially the same way, swings 

 up the coast of Japan and eastward across the 

 Pacific to the Aleutian Islands and the coast 

 of Alaska. Its effect upon ISTorthwestern 

 America is to make of the climate a something 

 akin in dampness and fogs to that of Great 

 Britain and Xorway. A branch of this cur- 

 rent turns down the coast of California, creat- 

 ing another Sargasso Sea in the Pacific, and 

 making of California a climate somewhat like 

 that of Spain. 



These are the two currents with which the 

 sailor has the most familiarity, but there are 

 many others put down upon the charts of the 

 Pacific and Indian oceans. The larger ones 

 are the South Equatorial and Australian cur- 

 rents, the Brazilian, the Mozambique and the 

 Monsoon Drift. Comparatively smaller are the 

 Agulhas Current that sweeps westward around 

 the Cape of Good Hope, and the Guinea Cur- 

 rent, either of which, though slight by compari- 

 son, is mighty enough to command respect. 



Other ocean 

 currents. 



