Large-Scale Features 



23 



and the tail of the Grand Banks. Extensions of the Gulf Stream System to 

 the eastward were to be spoken of as the North Atlantic Current. The North 

 Atlantic Current, which appears to be made up of a number of separate 

 streams, eddies, or branches (exactly which we do not yet know) is often 

 obscured by a shallow, wind-driven surface movement called the North 

 Atlantic Drift, which varies from time to time, depending upon the winds. 

 In spite of the advantages of this nomenclature, no one has strictly 

 adhered to it. In this book I often use the term Gulf Stream in a more 



Fig. 2. Chart showing the chief features of the surface-water circulation of 

 the North Atlantic circulation, according to Sverdrup, Johnson, and Fleming 

 (1942, fig. 187). In general, the chart is much oversimplified, and it should be 



regarded as essentially schematic. 



general sense than that proposed by Iselin; and I do not speak of the 

 Florida Current as extending to Cape Hatteras, but restrict the use of this 

 term to mean the current actually within the Florida Straits. Unfor- 

 tunately, the naming of things is more a matter of common usage than of 

 good sense. 



The names of other currents referred to in this book are also shown in 

 fig. 2. 



