236 THREE CRUISES OF THE / BLAKE." 
face of the passage, and from the comparatively clean crest of 
the plateau across which the Atlantic waters aré driven into the 
western Caribbean, that the current is flowing to the westward, 
and extends to the very bottom of the passage. Our experience 
in dredging between the Windward Islands was similar. We 
found the floor of the passages generally swept clear of all ani- 
mal life, while it was only to the leeward of the dividing ridges 
b { 
P ii 
“ро 
E : 925 u HT 
Fathoms 
E200 „‚....... 
——— 
mod5i aet" ГИ Ld See en 
Fig. 164. 
and of the islands, where the silt had a chance to accumulate, 
that marine animals were found in great profusion. 
A similar experience followed us along the course of the Gulf 
Stream to the north of the Straits of Florida, while dredging 
across the Blake Plateau, off the coasts of Georgia and the 
Carolinas, and it was not until we reached the sea slope of the 
Gulf Stream trough near Cape Hatteras that we again came 
upon animal life in abundance; there we found it flourishing 
in the silt which had been rolled by the Gulf Stream along its 
bottom throughout its whole course from the Bahamas to Cape 
Hatteras. 
It was only on the shore edge of the Gulf Stream, or in por- 
