366 OBSERVATIONS ON TEE CURRENTS, 



(340.) Gerieral Description of the Currents in the Bay of Guatemala, by 

 Captain W. S. Smith, E.iV.— Captain Mackellar, R.N., a writer worthy of 

 great respect, remarks: — " Tiie Current between the island of Jamaica 

 and the Spanish Main, or coast of Colombia, is not always to be depended 

 upon as setting to the Westward, as is generally supposed ; for, in cross- 

 ing from Jamaica to the Main, ships have been known to be driven to the 

 Eastward by the Current." This circumstance must be of rare occurrence 

 at the Northern part of the passage, and is here mentioned to make known 

 its possibility. I myself have made runs across between Jamaica and the 

 opposite Main at many times and seasons, and am, therefore, governed by 

 practice as well as theory in the following remarks. 



1. Local Current between the South side of Jamaica, the Morant Kays, 

 and Pedro Shoals. — This is very uncertain, both in rate and direction. Its 

 rate may be from to 1^ knot per hour ; and its direction, either North, 

 East, or West, according to circumstances. At the Morant Kays, the 

 Current is known to be variable. Over Pedro Shoals it is supposed almost 

 ever to run in a Westerly direction. Between these two dangers, there- 

 fore, it behoves a ship at night to be full of precaution, and not to rely on 

 the continuance of any current she may have ascertained when either to 

 the Northward or Southward of her then situation. 



2. Current Southward of the Morant Kays and Pedro Baiik, or between 

 the parallels of 17° and 15°. This Current runs, perhaps always, true West 

 to N.W. by W., from 20 to 55 miles per day. 



Among the Mosquito Shoals the Currents are equally strong and more 

 uncertain. Between latitude 15° and a line extending from Cape de la 

 Vela to Cape Gracias a Dios, including some of the Mosquito Kays, the 

 direction is W.S.W. to N.W., 20 to 40 miles per day. 



3. In the Bay of Guatemala, Southward of a line between the Capes de 

 la Vela and Gracias a Dios, and to the distance of 30 miles from the coast, 

 the sets are so very variable as to baffle all system. Sometimes no current 

 whatever is felt ; at other periods it may run North, South, East, or West, 

 35 miles a day. Let it be borne in mind, however, that their direction is 

 very seldom toward the East, but generally toward the West. St. Andrew's 

 Isle and the frontier rocks of the Mosquito Bank are equally beset by 

 changeable currents, of velocities amounting to fifty miles a day. 



4. Between Cape ManzaniUo, near Porto Bello, ayid Sa7i Juan de Nicara- 

 gua, the Inshore or Land Curre7it sets from Westward to Eastward. It is an 

 eddy, striking out from the Westerly Caribbean Current at Gracias 4 Dios, 

 and eventually returning into it, with a broken and divided force, to the 

 North of Cartagena. The breadth of this Current extends from the land to 

 a distance of about 30 miles in the offing. Its rate is from 1 to 2 knots, 

 and its direction parallel to the curvature of the coast and capes. 



The streams out of numerous rivers, entering this Current, seem to in- 

 increase its rapidity; for close inshore, between the rivers, the rate is seldom 

 less than 2 knots ; at 6 miles off the land it runs about 1 knot ; and at a 

 greater distance the same. 



(341.) On January 9th, 1892, Captain Reynholds, of the barque Hovding, 

 when in the vicinity of Morant Kays, states that his vessel was set out Qt 

 her course 15 miles to the Northward by a strong Northerly current. 



