THE GULF STREAM. 257 



which, as has been shown, is derived from the western set of the 

 equatorial current joining the Gulf Stream in its way towards 

 the European shores/ . (See Figs. 170-175.) 



Commander Bartlett thus describes the general course of the 

 Gulf Stream : — 



" The Gulf Stream has for its western bank the one-hundred-fathoni 

 curve as far as Cape Hatteras. It has a depth of 400 fathoms as far as 

 Charleston, where it is reduced to 300 fathoms ; but the Arctic current 

 has for its western bank the one-thousand-fathom curve, which is quite 

 close to shoal water from the George's Bank to Hatteras. 



" The average surface temperature in the axis of the Stream rarely 

 exceeded 83° F. in June and July. On one or two occasions the ther- 

 mometer read as high as 86°, and once 89° ; but it was at high noon in 

 a dead calm. The temperature at five fathoms did not range above the 

 average of 81^°. 



" The increase of temperature of the surface was fomid as we entered 

 the current. . . . 



" The surface temperatures did not indicate a cold wall inside of 

 the Stream, and the water inside of the one-hundred-fathom line to 

 the shore seemed to be an overflow of the Stream, as the temperatures 

 to five, ten, and fifteen fathoms were nearly as high as those found in 

 the Stream. 



" The temperatures at the bottom in the Stream, at corresponding 

 depths, were the same as those found in the Windward Passage, and 

 in the course of the current to the Yucatan Passage. The average 

 bottom temperature at 400 fathoms was 45°, and, as off Charleston,^ in 

 300 fathoms, 53°. The temperature at 300 fathoms, off the George's 



1 It might, perhaps, be advisable to to the eastward of 45° W. Long. There 

 distinguish between the eastern exten- seems to be no reason for changing the 

 sion of the Gulf Stream combined with name of the Gulf Stream because so many 

 the Atlantic drift, and the Gulf Stream other liberties have been taken with it. 

 proper, understanding by the latter the We should retain the original name, limit- 

 water which passes through the Florida ing it to the Florida Stream coming from 

 Straits. This has been called by Peter- the Gulf of Mexico, and apply to its east- 

 mann the Florida Stream ; and the name ern extension, in connection with the At- 

 of Gulf Stream he has applied to the iin- lantic easterly drift, some new name, 

 mense body of warm water which super- such as the Ecpiatorial Drift, or the Car- 

 heats the basin of the Eastern Atlantic ibbean Stream. 



^ About eighty miles from Charleston a line was run parallel to the coast, along 

 the axis of the Gulf Stream. 



