190 THE OCEAN. [Book VIII. 



advocate his theory at present. And many other 

 eminent authorities, besides Captain Maury, have 

 doubted the sufficiency of the winds as a cause for 

 the existing oceanic circulation. Mr. Findlay says : 

 ' It will be seen that throughout the breadth of this 

 ocean the set of the stream is not to SW. or NW., as 

 might be expected from the direction of the Trade 

 Winds, which may be taken as the prime mover 

 of these mighty drifts, but westward : ' and then 

 adds : ' This fact would seem to indicate that the 

 rotation of the earth on its axis has more to do with 

 its motion than has usually been attributed to it.' ^ 

 From this view, which has suggested itself to many 

 others practically acquainted with the actual move- 

 ments of the ocean and atmosphere. Sir Charles 

 Lyell differs ; and says, after mentioning ' the wind, 

 the tides, evaporation, the influx of rivers, and the 

 expansion and contraction of water by heat and cold,' 

 as causes of currents — ' But there is another cause, 

 the rotation of the earth on its axis, which can only 

 come into play when the waters have already been 

 set in motion by some one or all of the forces above 

 enumerated, and when the direction of the current so 

 raised happens to be from south to north, or from 

 north to south.' ^ Sir Charles Lyell does not say 

 why the action of the axial rotation of the earth can 



' P. 299 of the work mentioned on p. 129. 

 ^ Princijjles of Geology, by Sir Chai-les Lyell, Bart., M. A., F.R.S. 

 (London, 1867), p. 500. 



