OCEAN CURRENTS 135 



In the Pacific Ocean we have, on a very much 

 larger scale, of course, a similar circulation to that 

 of the Atlantic. Only here, between the north and 

 south equatorial currents, just north of the equator, 

 we have a counter warm- water current running west, 

 into the causes and effects of which we need not stay 

 to inquire, although they are fraught with incalculable 

 consequences of good to the peoples of Asia and 

 America. The great fact emerges, that the main body 

 of the equatorial current flowing west and meeting 

 with the mighty barrier of the East Indian archipelago 

 recurves, as does the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic, but 

 not in nearly the same energetic fashion, seeing that 

 the geographical conditions are much less favourable 

 to its doing so. But it sweeps northward along the 

 eastern shores of the Japanese islands until catching 

 the prevailing westerly wind, and prevented from 

 running north by the great chain of the Aleutian 

 Islands, it pursues a steady course across the wide 

 Pacific until it strikes the shores of British North 

 America, which it thus preserves from being an icy 

 desert, being, like its counterpart in the Atlantic, 

 composed of warm water. But it is not so warm 

 as the Gulf Stream, not having had the same oppor- 

 tunities of gaining heat, and also being more superficial ; 

 nor is it so energetic, dwindling sometimes in its rate 

 of progress eastward so much that it has to be classed 

 as variable. 



It is, however, fairly certain that by means of this 

 current early Chinese or Japanese navigators, not 

 intentionally but perforce, reached America. At any 

 rate, many scientific investigators have given it as 

 their opinion that the land of Fusang, mentioned 



