THE GULF-STEEAM. t>T 



easterly direction, between the tropic of Capricorn and the- 

 mouth of the La Plata river, beyond the limits of the trade- 

 winds. Its traces show themselves to the south-east of the Cape- 

 of Good Hope, and are finally lost far in the Indian Ocean. 



The northern arm of the equatorial stream flows along the 

 north-eastern coast of South America; constantly raising its 

 temperature under the influence of a tropical sun, and progress- 

 ing with a rapidity of a hundred miles in twenty-four hours (six 

 feet and a half in a second), after having been joined by the- 

 waters of the Amazon river. Thus it continues to flow to the. 

 east, until the continent of Central America opposes an in- 

 vincible barrier to its farther progress in this direction, and 

 compels it to follow the windings of the coast of Costa Eica^. 

 Mosquitos, Campeche, and Tabasco. It then performs a vast 

 circuit along the shores of the Mexican Gulf, and finally 

 emerges through the Straits of Bahama into the open ocean. 



Here it assumes a new name, and forms what navigators call 

 the Gulf-stream, a rapid current of tepid water, which, flowing 

 in a diagonal direction, recedes farther and farther from the 

 coast of North America as it advances to the north-east. Under- 

 the forty-first degree of latitude it suddenly bends to the east,, 

 gradually diminishing in swiftness, and at the same time in- 

 creasing in width. 



Thus it flows across the Atlantic, to the south of the great 

 bank of Newfoundland, where Humboldt found the temperature- 

 of its stream several degrees higher than that of the neighbour- 

 ing and tranquil waters, which form, as it were, the banks of the.- 

 warm oceanic current. Ere it reaches the western Azores, it 

 divides into two arms, one of which is driven, partly by the 

 natural impulse of its stream, but principally by the prevail- 

 ing westerly and north-westerly winds, towards the coasts of 

 Europe; while the other, flowing towards the Canary Islands and- 

 the western coast of Africa, finally returns into the equatorial! 

 current. 



In this manner the waters are brought back to the point from- 

 which they came, after having performed a vast circuit of 20,000' 

 miles, which it took them nearly three years to accomplish. 

 According to Humboldt's calculations, a boat left to the current,,. 

 and moving along without any other assistance, would require 

 about thirteen months to float from the Canary Islands to the- 



