162 On the Gulf Stream and Currents of the Sea. 



are so far unknown, that we search for them in vain in our nau- 

 tical books or in the history of navigation. 



Proceeding into the Atlantic we find a vast stream of warm 

 water running northeast from the straits of Florida to the Banks 

 of Newfoundland, and thence to the shores of Europe. What 

 are its breadth and its depth we know not. We are told in- 

 deed that even at the same place, it sometimes runs at the rate of 

 two knots the hour and sometimes at five, and we know that it 

 may be always found within certain broad limits, varying in this 

 too at the same place^ from one hundred and forty to three hun- 

 dred and forty miles. With this, our knowledge of it ends ; al- 

 though more accurate information as to it and its offsets would 

 have saved many shipv/recks, and would contribute not a Uttle 

 to the speedy and safe navigation of the Atlantic. 



Though navigators had been in the habit of crossing and re- 

 crossing the Gulf Stream almost daily for the space of near three 

 hundred years, its existence even, was not generally known 

 among them, until after Dr. Franklin discovered the warmth of 

 its waters, about seventy years ago ; — and to this day, the infor- 

 mation which he gave us, constitutes the basis — I had almost said, 

 the sum and substance — of all we know about it. 



When he was in London in 1770, he happened to be consulted 

 as to a memorial which the Board of Customs at Boston sent to 

 the Lords of the Treasury, stating that the Falmouth packets 

 were generally a fortnight longer to New York, than common 

 traders were from London to Providence, R. L They therefore 

 asked that the Falmouth packets might be sent to Providence in- 

 stead of New York. This appeared strange to the doctor, for Lon- 

 don was much farther than Falmouth ; and from Falmouth, the 

 routes were the same, and the difference should have been the 

 other way. He however consulted a Nantucket whaler, who 

 chanced to be in London also, who explained to him that the dif- 

 ference arose from the circumstance that the Rhode Island cap- 

 tains were acquainted with the Gulf Stream, while those of the 

 English packets were not. The latter kept in it, and were set 

 back sixty or seventy miles a day, while the former avoided it 

 altogether. He had been made acquainted with it by the whales, 

 which were found on either side of it, but never in it. At the 

 request of the doctor he then traced on a chart the course of 

 this stream from the Straits of Florida. The doctor had it en- 



