Facts in Meteorology, 131 



The fruit of trees which belong to the American torrid zone, is 

 «very year deposited on the western coasts of Ireland and Norway; 

 and on the shores of the Hebrides are collected seeds of several 

 plants, the growth of Jamaica, Cuba, and the neighboring continent. 

 The most striking circumstance, perhaps, is that of the wreck of an 

 English vessel, burnt near Jamaica, having been found on the coast 

 of Scotland. 



The general features of the currents in the north and south Pa- 

 cific resemble those in the Atlantic, except that they are obstructed 

 by numerous islands. A Japanese junk, which had been disabled 

 on that coast, has recently been drifted to the Sandwich Islands ; and 

 pieces of wreck and other articles from the China sea, are often 

 found by the whale ships in the northern Pacific. 



The existence of under currents, different from those on the sur- 

 face, is highly probable and is supported by the analogy of the at- 

 mospheric currents, which traverse immense distances in distinct 

 horizontal strata ; but their existence is not distinctly proved except 

 by the drift of the icebergs, which are brought into the margin of 

 the gulf stream, during the spring and summer, by the polar cur- 

 rent, which then disappears, and from its greater density, probably 

 becomes an inferior current, passing to the lower latitudes. From 

 the great depth of the icebergs, it probably continues to act upon 

 them after they arrive within the influence of the warmer current of 

 the gulf stream. 



An under current is also supposed to exist in the straits of Gibral- 

 tar, where there is a constant influx from the Atlantic through the 

 strait ; as the wreck of a vessel which was sunk on the Mediterra- 

 nean side of the strait, is said to have risen again in the Atlantic. 



The existence of under currents is further confirmed by the in- 

 creased temperature of the water at certain depths in some parts of 

 the ocean, which, as in the case of the atmosphere, being contrary 

 to known tendencies, seems to prove the interposition of strata of 

 different temperatures, by the action of dissimilar currents. 



It is common to ascribe the currents of the ocean wholly to the 

 action of the winds ; but, as the waters of the ocean are subject to 

 the same impulses as the superincumbent atmosphere, it is probable 

 that the principal movements of both fluids have their origin in the 

 same causes. 



Water being a bad conductor of heat, the temperature of the sea 

 changes much less suddenly than that of the atmosphere, and is by 



