RENNELL'S CURRENT. 307 



English Channel, and the supplementary paper immediately preceding, 

 Major Eennell published some further important observations upon it, 

 which were read before the Royal Society, April 13th, 1813, and from 

 which the following extracts are taken : — 



" During the interval of twenty-one years, since the Society did me the 

 honour to receive my Observations on the Current to the Westtoard of Scilly, 

 more facts relating to that Current have been collected, as well as obser- 

 vations on its effects, in different parts of its course, between Cape Finis- 

 terre and Scilly, the whole tending to confirmation of the general system 

 set forth in 1793 ; and, in one instance, affording perhaps a clearer proof 

 of the strength of the stream, in respect to its Northerly direction, than 

 any of those adduced on the former occasion. 



" In pursuing the detail of these facts and observations, I shall begin in 

 the neighbourhood of Cape Finisterre, and proceed with the course of the 

 Current along the Bay of Biscay ; and thence across the mouth of the 

 English Channel to Scilly, and the entrance of St. George's Channel. 



" The first three facts (not detailed here) regard the Current from the 

 open sea, setting into the South side of the Bay of Biscay, and along the 

 North coast of Spain ; which Current was supposed, in the former paper, 

 to be occasioned by the prevalent Westerly winds, which force the water 

 near the shore into the hay, and along the Southern coast of it. The water 

 so displaced would be followed, of course, by the adjacent water behind it, 

 in the open sea ; and so on successively, to a certain extent. This cause 

 must surely be referred to as the origin of the Scilly Current. The three 

 facts converge, as it were, to one point; that is, in the proof that the 

 waters of the Atlantic flow into the Bay of Biscay, along the North coast 

 of Spain. 



" It would seem that the North- Westerly current, by Scilly, did not, at 

 least in many cases, balance the Easterly current round Cape Ortegal and 

 the land of Finisterre.* The loss of His Majesty's frigate Apollo, with most 

 of her convoy, may surely be attributed to the operation of this Current. 

 Captain (afterwards Commissioner) Wallace assured me, that after having 

 made, as he supposed, ample allowance for clearing Finisterre, yet, in the 

 night, he had a very narrow escape from shipwreck. Very many others 

 have been brought into the same kind of danger ; so that the land of Finis- 

 terre, were it not discernible at a considerable distance, and its offing clear 

 of rocks and shallows, and, moreover, situated in a finer climate, would 

 prove a kind of Scilly to mariners. 



" I have not been able to obtain any proofs on record concerning the 

 course of the Current round the Bay of Biscay. I formerly collected some 

 information from a French commander respecting it. He said that the 

 setting of the Current along the coast of France, to the North and N.W., 

 was a fact well understood, and even acted on, by many in the choice of the 

 tach, on which the Current gave the greatest advantage with head winds. 



* Nor, admitting an equal rate in both places, could it well be. For the Current 

 ■enters the Bay of Biscay in an East direction, but goes off from it N. W. ; so that, if a 

 ship were carried 50 miles to the N.W. from Ushant, she would only have made about 

 35 miles westing ; but, in the other case, she would be carried the whole 50 miles East- 

 ward, toward the Bay and Cape Finisterre. 



