TO THE NOETHEEN POETS OF AMEEICA. 641 



and are a very excellent indication of your near approach to it, particularly 

 on the South side. 



" By crossing the Banks thus far North, you will jfind the advantage as 

 you approach the longitudes of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia ; the 

 strong N.W. and North gales having then commenced, you will fre- 

 quently be compelled to lie-to for two or three days ; and should then 

 ensure sufficient drift, before you are blown into the strong influence of 

 the Gulf Stream ; which would be the case at a few degrees to the South- 

 ward, and inevitably in a S.S.E. direction, at an inconceivable rate. Last 

 November (1824) the case occurred ; the vessel being hove-to, under main- 

 topsail and storm-trysail, to the Westward of the Banks, in lat. 45°, was, 

 in four days, swept into lat. 39|^°, consequently into the Gulf Stream, 

 when the longitude became also considerably affected, and I took the first 

 opportunity of making a N.N.W. course, to get out of it as soon as 

 possible. 



" To prove the advantages of a Northern track, late in the fall of the 

 year, I may notice that I have, in one or two instances, read in the 

 American newspapers the accounts of very long passages experienced by 

 ships which met heavy gales in the latitudes of 35° and 38°, when several 

 vessels were disabled, and others suffered loss of sails ; yet, on the same 

 day, in lat. 54°, I had moderate weather from the N.N.E., with top- 

 gallant studding-sails set ; which strongly encourages me to believe, 

 that the blowing weather, incident to approaching winter, commences 

 Southerly, and inclines Northerly as the season advances, and not the 

 reverse ; an hypothesis generally formed by English shipmasters, but, in 

 my opinion, certainly erroneous. 



" I am further of opinion that the influence of the Gulf Stream, in the 

 parallels from lat. 35° to 42°, whether from the warmth of the water or 

 other natural causes, has a strong tendency to attract the wind from a 

 "Western direction ; as I have invariably found the wind more alterative 

 in the Northern latitudes before mentioned than the Southern ones ; and 

 it unquestionably must be allowed by all mariners of any observation, 

 that gales experienced in the Gulf Stream or its vicinity blow with much 

 greater violence than they do in that part of the Northern Atlantic not 

 under its influence;* besides, the squalls from the Southward or S.W. are 

 much more sudden and heavy, and near the Banks they are attended 

 with dangerous lightning. The thermometer is of the greatest importance 

 for ascertaining your approach to it ; and, if bound to the West, I would, 

 for my own part, endeavour to avoid its effects as cautiously as a lee shore; 

 for it may depended on, that no ship, however well she may sail, will effect 

 Westing in the Gulf Stream with a wind from that quarter ; and it is to 

 be remembered that its velocity is accelerated according to the strength of 

 those winds ; and its extent in breadth, at a few degrees to the Westward 

 of the Azores, is many more degrees than is commonly supposed. 



" These observations, I hope, may be useful to my brother mariners 

 engaged in these voyages ; and permit me to say, that they are grounded 



* See the remaiks upon the Gales of the Azores, in the description of those islands, 

 later on. 



