GULPH MAELSTROM. 



The whirlpool called the MaeI/?rom is only quiefcent one quarter of an hour, at Lxviii. 



high and low water ; and then alone the fifliermen venture to pafs : on the return 

 or retreat of the tide, fuch is the fury of its vertiginous motion,, that whatfo- 

 ever comes within a confiderable diftance of it, is drawn in and forced to the 

 bottom, where it remains for fome hours, after which the fhivered fragments ap- 

 pear on the furface. Boats, and even fhips, have been fwallowed up by it : whales 

 have been known to be caught within the vortex ; their ftruggles to free them- 

 felves from the danger, and their piteous bellowings, are faid to furpafs all de- 

 fcription. The folution of this phsenomenon is now rendered very eafy. Itlies in the 

 midft of the ifles of Loeffori, in a narrow channel, between the ifle of Mo/koe and 

 that of Fer-y the depth of water is between thirty-fix and forty fathoms, but on the 

 fide next to Fer fo- fhallow, as not to give paflage to a veflel without danger of 

 fplitting on the rocks. All the bottom is vaftly craggy, fhooting into fl:oney fpires, 

 which appear at low water above the furface ; over them the flood and ebb roll 

 with amazing rapidity, and whirl round with a noife equal to that of the greatest 

 cataracts, fo that the roaring may be heard feveral miles diftant*. So fimply 

 may be explained that wonder which philofophers have ftyled the navel of the fea ; 

 fuppofing it to have been an abyfs which funk here, and rofe again in the gulph of 

 Bothnia. 



iXVv 



The lakes Sig, Onda, and Wigo form fucceflive links from the lake Onega 

 to the White Sea. The lake Saima almoft cuts Finland through ft-om north to 

 fouth ; its northern end is not remote from lake Onda, and the fouthern extends 

 very near to the gulph of Finland ; a fpace of near forty Swedijh, or two hundred 

 and fixty Englijh miles. Thefe probably v/ere part of the bed of the antient 

 fireights which joined the Whit£ and the Baltic feas^ 



From the weffward j read, to the weftward. lixi-x. 



The extent of the gulph ftream is fuppofed to be as far as Nantucket fhoalsj,. ixx., 



which are not lefs than a thoufand miles from the gulph of Florida. 



Let me remark, from Dr. Blagden f, the fingular difference of warmth in the 

 gulph flream, from that of the fea which limits its edges. In the month of 

 Ap-il, in north latitude 33, and wefl longitude from Greenwich 76, fomewhat to 

 the north of Charlejiown, the heat of the ftream was found to be at left fix de- 

 grees greater than the water of the fea through which it ran. From obfervations 



* T.orfaus,Bx&, Norveg. i. 94. Ph. Tranf, Lx. 42. t Phil. Tranf, lxxi. 334. 



made; 



