4'2o 



ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE 



the coaft of Spain and Africa, meets the ftrearis 

 afcending from the fouth, as already defcribed, 

 and thus continues in perpetual circulation. 

 The velocity of thefe currents is not lefs remark- 

 able than their extent. At the Cape of Good 

 Hope, the rate is thirty nautical miles in twenty- 

 four hours ; in fome places forty-five ; and un- 

 der the line feventy-feven. When the Gulf-ftream 

 iffiies from the Straits of Bahama, it runs at the 

 rate of four miles an hour, and proceeds to the 

 diftance of 1800 miles, before its velocity is re- 

 duced to half that quantity. In the parallel of 

 38°, near 1000 miles from the above ftrait, the 

 water of the ftream has been found ten degrees 

 warmer than the air. 



<- 



373. The courfe of the Gulf-ftream is fo fixed 

 and regular, that nuts and plants from the Welt 

 Indies are annually thrown afhore on the Weft- 

 ern Iflands of Scotland. The maft of a man 

 of war, burnt at Jamaica, was driven feveral 

 months afterwards on the Hebrides *, after per- 

 forming a voyage of more than 4000 miles, un- 

 der the diredion of a current, which, in the 

 midft of the ocean, maintains its courfe as ftea- 



dily as a river does upon the land. 



The great fyftem of currents thus traced 

 through the Atlantic, has. no doubt phenomena 



correfponding 



• f Pennant's Ar^ic Zoology, Introd. p. 70 



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