52 On the Gulf Siream and the Keys of Florida. 
necessarily be abrasion of the outer bank and deposit upon the 
inner. Thus, in proportion as the outer curve extends by abra- 
sion of the outer bank, the inner curve will extend also by de- 
posit, and the tongue of land around which the sweep is made 
will grow —_ and longer. if this tongue be cut away by 
necess sea true under all circumstances. It canes no ‘ifforones 
whether the stream runs between banks of solid matter or be- 
tween banks of still water. If a stream, leaving sediment, runs 
_ through still water, making a swéep or curve, the sediment must 
eposit principally upon the imner side o the curve, making 
shoal water at this part: the esa = extend, and the shoal 
water wus a in the same 
irresistable that the sweep of the curve has been increasing with 
the course of time, and that the tongue of land hate: es curve, 
viz: nel Peninsula of Flo rida, has been extending, par? passu, 
by means of sedimentary deposit. Or, = nat a miooh the 
Geant of the Gulf Stream has alway. 8 ee same as at 
present, and that Florida was once panto by a tongue of 
still water within the curve, this tongue of still water must have 
become more and more shoal by sedimentary deposit. I repeat, 
then, that upon any conceivable theory as to the position of the 
Gulf Stream, whether its curve has been increasing or has been 
always the same as at Ain if it carries sediment, according 
to the laws of currents, there must have been a progressive 
shoaling of water within the curve from north toward the south, 
and, consequently, a progressive formation of the conditions 
necessary for the growth of coral, and their extension in the 
same direction. What evidence, then, have we that the Gulf 
—— does indeed carry sediment 
f Stream is supposed to be a continuation of the great 
ccpatonial! current which, stretching across the Atlantic from the 
coast of one strikes upon the wedge-shaped point of the 
eastern coast of South cane and divides into a northern an 
southern branch.» The n 
+ te 
Mexico from which 
and along the con 
the coast of En urope. 
