CHARTING THE RIVER 99 



catches a goodly portion of it and shunts it north across the 

 equator to join the north equatorial current on the Atlantic 

 side of the Antilles or Windward Islands of the West Indies. 

 Here again part of this great accumulation of warm waters^ 

 known as the Antilles Current, passes north and west outside 

 the Windward Islands and the Bahamas, until beyond Cape 

 Canaveral on the east Florida coast it meets the Florida 

 stream. 



Another part of the equatorial drift of waters enters the 

 Caribbean Sea and finds its way through the Straits of Yuca- 

 tan between Mexico and Cuba and then through the Straits 

 of Florida between Florida and the Bahamas. Here we call 

 it the Florida Current. A side branch of this Caribbean stream 

 varying in magnitude enters the Gulf of Mexico from the 

 Straits of Yucatan and returns again near the Florida Keys. 



North of the Bahama Islands these two great streams, the 

 Florida Current and the Antilles Current, reunite to form the 

 Gulf Stream proper, which soon turns eastward toward the 

 European continent. As it approaches Europe south of Green- 

 land along the edge of the north continental shelf and what 

 is called the Telegraph Plateau, a broad diffuse portion of the 

 Ocean River turns full circle down by France, Spain, the 

 Azores, and back to the African coast, but part bathes the 

 British Isles in a warmth that belies the fact that they stand 

 in the same latitude as Labrador. 



Now just north of Scotland, stretching northwest to Green- 

 land, a rise of undersea land — the Wyville-Thompson ridge 

 — comes near enough to the surface to stop the deeper south- 

 erly drift of heavy, ice-cold arctic waters, but permits about 

 two percent of the warmer surface waters of the now reduced 

 Atlantic stream to seep over into the Norwegian Sea. This 

 mild current keeps open Norwegian ports in the same latitude 

 as the Greenland icecap, likewise makes Iceland a habitable 

 place, and even affects the shallow Baltic Sea. A slight but 



