On the Gulf Stream and Currents of the Sea. 175 



spoken of, is met, and its icebergs melted by the warm waters 

 from the Gulf Of course, the loads of stones, earth, and gravel 

 brought down upon them, are here deposited. Captain Scoresby, 

 far away in the north, counted five hundred ice-bergs setting out 

 from the same vicinity upon this cold current for the south. 

 Many of them, loaded with earth, have been seen aground on the 

 banks. This process of transferring deposites for these shoals has 

 been going on for ages, and with time, seems altogether adequate 

 to the effects ascribed. 



The maximum temperature of the gulf stream is 86^, or about 

 9*^ above the ocean temperature due to the latitude. Increasing 

 its latitude 10°, it loses but 2° of its temperature ; and after having 

 run three thousand miles towards the north, it still preserves the 

 heat of summer. With this temperature, it crosses the 40th de- 

 gree of N. latitude, and there overflowing its liquid banks, it 

 spreads itself out for thousands of square leagues over the cold 

 waters around, and covers the ocean with that mantle of warmth 

 which tends so much to mitigate, in Europe, the rigors of winter. 



Moving now more slowly, but dispensing its genial influences 

 more freely, it finally meets the British islands. By these it is 

 divided, one part going into the polar basin of Spitzbergen, the 

 other entering the Bay of Biscay, but each with a warmth con- 

 siderably above ocean temperature. Such an immense volume of 

 heated water cannot fail to carry with it, beyond the seas, a mild 

 and moist atmosphere, and this it is which so much softens cli- 

 mate there. 



We know not what the depth of the under temperature of the 

 Gulf Stream may be ; but assuming the temperature and velocity 

 at the depth of two hundred fathoms to be those of the surface,*' 

 and taking the well-known difl'erence between the capacity of 

 air and water for specific heat, as the argument, a simple calcula- 

 tion will show that the quantity of heat discharged over the At- 

 lantic from the waters of the Gulf Stream, in a winter's day, would 

 be suflicient to raise the whole column of atmosphere that rests 

 upon France and the British islands from the freezing point to 

 summer heat. 



Every west wind that blows crosses this stream on its way to 

 Europe, and carries wiih it a portion of this heat to temper there 



* Which probably is not the case. 



