£4 



CHAP. V. 



OCEAN CURRENTS. 



Causes of the Oceanic Currents. — The Equatorial Stream. — The Gulf Stream. — 

 Its Influence on the Climate of the "West European Coasts. — The Cold Peruvian 

 Stream. — The Japanese Stream. 



Perpetual motion and change is the grand law, to which the 

 whole of the created universe is subject, and immutable stability 

 is nowhere to be found, but in the Eternal mind that rules and 

 governs all things. The stars, which were supposed to befioced 

 to the canopy of heaven, are restless wanderers through the 

 illimitable regions of space. The hardest rocks melt away 

 nnder the corroding influence of time, for the elements never 

 cease gnawing at their surface, and dislocating the atoms of 

 which they are composed. Our body appears to us unchanged 

 since yesterday, and yet how many of the particles which formed 

 its substance, have within these few short hours, been cast off 

 and replaced by others. We fancy ourselves at rest, and yet a 

 torrent of blood, propelled by an indefatigable heart, is con- 

 stantly flowing through all our arteries and veins. 



A similar external appearance of tranquillity might deceive 

 the superficial observer, when sailing over the vast expanse of 

 ocean, at a time when the winds are asleep, and its surface is 

 unruffled by a wave. But how great would be his error ! For 

 every atom of the boundless sea is constantly moving and 

 changing its place ; from the depth to the surface, or from the 

 surface to the depth; from the frozen pole to the burning 

 equator, or from the torrid zone to the arctic ocean ; now rising 

 in the air in the form of invisible vapours, and then again de- 

 scending upon our fields in fertilising showers. 



The waters are, in fact, the greatest travellers on earth ; they 

 know all the secrets of the submarine world ; climb the peaks 



