26 THE OCEAN. 
ticles of water, for the same reason as those in 
the glass, to a certain extent, resist the influence 
of this rotation, and appear to assume a motion 
in the opposite direction, from east to west. With 
respect to all the phenomena to be explained, this 
apparent motion is exactly the same as if it were 
real, and we shall consider it so. Now, examine 
a globe, or a map of the Atlantic, and you will see 
that this westerly “set” of the equatorial waters, 
meeting the coast of South America, is slightly 
turned through the Caribbean Sea, until it strikes 
the coast of Mexico, which, like an impregnable 
rampart, opposes its progress. The stream, impelled 
by the waves behind, must have an outlet, and the 
forrn of the shore drives it round the northern side 
of the Gulf of Mexico, until it is again bent by the 
peninsula of Florida. But here the long island of 
Cuba meets its southerly course, and, like the hunted 
deer, headed at every turn, the whole of the broad 
tide that entered the Gulf, now pent up within the 
compass of a few leagues, rushes with vast impetus 
through the only outlet that is open, between Florida 
and the Bahamas. It is as if we propelled with 
swiftness against the air a wide funnel, the mouth 
being outwards, the tube of which was long and 
tortuous, and which terminated at length nearly at 
right angles to the mouth: it is easy to imagine 
that a strong current of air would issue from the 
tube, exactly as the waters of the Gulf-stream do 
from their narrow gorge. The waters of the Pa- 
cific have the same westerly flow, but its force is 
broken, without being turned, by the vast assem- 
