CURRENTS OF THE OCEAN. 29 
area equal in extent to the Mississippi Valley ; it is so thickly matted 
over with the Gulf Weed (Sargassum bacciferum), that the speed of 
vessels passing through it is actually retarded, and to the companions 
of Columbus it seemed to mark the limits of navigation; they became 
alarmed. To the eye at a little distance it seemed sufficiently sub- 
stantial to walk upon.” These moving vegetable masses, always 
of a brownish green, which tail off to a steady breeze, serving as 
an anemometer to the mariner, afford an asylum to multitudes of 
molluscs and crustaceans. 
The Gulf Stream plays a grand part in the Atlantic system. It 
carries the tepid water of the equinoctial regions into the high lati- 
tudes ; beyond the fortieth parallel the temperature is 16° Centi- 
grade. Urged by the south-west winds which predominate in that 
zone, its tepid waters mix with those of the Northern Sea, softening 
the rigour of the climate in these regions. To the south of the great 
bank of Newfoundland, the warm current, in vast volume, rushing 
from the Florida Straits meets the cold currents descending from the 
Arctic Circle through Baffin’s Bay and the Sea of Greenland, running 
with equal velocity towards the south. A portion of these waters 
re-ascend towards the pole along the western coast of Greenland. It 
is to this conflict of the polar and equatorial waters, that the formation 
of the Banks of Newfoundland is ascribed. Each of these great 
currents having unceasingly deposited the déé77s carried in its bosom, 
the bank has been thus formed bit by bit in the concourse of ages. 
The difference of temperature between the Gulf Stream and the 
waters it traverses gives birth inevitably to tempests and cyclones. In 
1780 a terrible storm ravaged the Antilles, in which 20,000 persons 
perished. The ocean quitted its bed and inundated whole cities ; 
the trunks of trees, mingled with other débris, were tossed into the 
air. Numerous catastrophes of this kind have earned for the Gulf 
Stream the title of the ‘ King of the Tempests.” In consequence of 
the numerous nautical documents which have been placed at the 
command of the National Observatory of Washington, and the 
admirable use made of them by the late Naval Secretary and his 
assistants, the directions and range of these cyclones engendered by 
the Gulf Stream may be foreseen, and their most dangerous ravages 
turned aside. As an example of the utility of Dr. Maury’s labours 
in settling the direction of storms in the éraye¢ of the Gulf Stream, 
we quote a well-known instance: In the month of December, 1859, 
the American packet San Francisco was employed as a transport to 
convey a regiment to California. It was overtaken by one of these 
sudden storms, which placed the ship and its freight in a most 
