Proceedings of the Polytechnic Association. lOGl 



the Coast Survey, under the direction of the late Prof. A. D. Bache, 

 it ran about three nautical miles per hour ; off Cape Fear, two miles, 

 and off Sandy Hook (New York), one nautical mile. In a commu- 

 nication to- Judge Daly from Prof. Benjamin Pierce, Superintendent 

 of the United States Coast Survey, dated February 15th, 1870, a 

 table is given of the observed velocities of the gulf stream at three 

 stations in the Straits of Florida, the vessel having been anchored in 

 order to make the observations : 



Station No. 1. — Latitude twenty-four degrees sixteen minutes, 

 longitude thirty-two degrees twenty-two minutes, current 2.3 miles 

 per hour. 



Station No. 2. — Latitude twenty-four degrees thirty -seven minutes, 

 longitude eighty degrees twenty-eight minutes, current 2.0 miles per 

 hour. 



Station No. 3. — Latitude twenty-five degrees five minutes, longi- 

 tude seventj'-nine degrees fifty-seven minutes, current 1.7 miles per 

 hour. 



It will be observed that by the most accurate measurements yet 

 made the velocity of the stream diminished in less than one degree 

 of latitude seven-tenths of a mile per hour. With its velocity thus 

 weakened, as it is found by observation in the Arctic, President Daly 

 asks, is it reasonable to suppose that it has still sufficient force to 

 carry it to the Pole ? And, should it extend so far, how small must 

 be its influence upon the temperature and climate of the Polar basin, 

 embracing, as it does, a million and a half squares miles. It may be 

 further remarked that if this warm ocean river pursues its way 

 through the regions of the Arctic, maintaining an open passage 

 between Sj^itzbergen and Nova Zembla to the Pole, it is very extra- 

 ordinary that none of the vessels that for the last 300 years have 

 tried to sail northward and eastward in this direction have never 

 been able to meet with it, but have always been compelled to put 

 back before impassable ice. Is it to be supposed that the many able 

 and experienced seamen, who have been thus baffled in this very 

 region, would have been insensible to the value and importance of a 

 current running steadily to the north, or northeast, if such an one 

 was to be seen, or fail to notice the surface indications of it or its 

 influence upon the calculations of their reckoning ? 



After some observations suggested by the topics presented by the 

 Chair, the Association resumed the discussion on 



