<!» PHYSICAL GEOGEAPHY OF THE SEA. 



Caribbean Sea as far as Caraccas. From Caraccas to the 

 Straits of Florida, it would remain another ten months on the 

 ■way, for though the direct distance is but short, the current has 

 to perform an enormous circuit of 2500 miles, and flows but 

 •slowly in those confined seas. But the accumulated waters 

 having now to force their passage through the narrow channel 

 'between Cuba and the Bahama Islands on one side, and Florida 

 on the other, attain so considerable a velocity, that the whole 

 -distance from the Havannah to the Bank of Newfoundland, is 

 ■traversed in forty days. During this passage the G-ulf-stream 

 particularly deserves its name, and is easily distinguished from 

 "the surrounding waters by its higher temperature and its vivid 

 -dark blue colour. Numerous marine animals of the tropical 

 •seas, — the flying fish, the neat velella, the purple ianthina, the 

 crosier nautilus, accompany it to latitudes which otherwise would 

 prove fatal to their existence ; and, trusting its tepid stream, 

 float or swim along to the north or the north-east. 



At the extremity of the Bank of Newfoundland, it becomes 

 ■broader, wavers more or less in its course, according to the 

 prevailing winds, and at the same time decreases in rapidity, so 

 that the boat would most likely still require from ten to eleven 

 months for this last station of its journey, ere it once more 

 reached the Canary Islands. 



The direction of the Gulf-stream explains to us how the pro- 

 ductions of tropical America are so frequently found on the 

 -shores of the Eastern Atlantic. Humboldt relates that the 

 ■main-mast of the " Tilbury," a ship of the line, wrecked during 

 the seven years' war on the coast of San Domingo, was carried 

 'by the Gulf-stream to the North of Scotland ; and cites the still 

 more remarkable fact, that casks of palm oil belonging to the 

 ■cargo of an English vessel, which foundered on a rock near Cape 

 Lopez, likewise found their way to Scotland, having thus twice 

 traversed the wide Atlantic ; first borne from east to west by the 

 equatorial current, and then carried from west to east, between 

 45° and 55° N. latitude, by means of the Gulf-stream. 



Major Eennell (" Investigation of Currents ") relates the pere- 

 grinations of a bottle, thrown overboard from the " Newcastle," 

 on the 20th of January, 1819, in lat. 38° 52', and long. 66° 20', 

 and ultimately found on the 2nd of June, 1820, on the shore 

 •of the Island of Arran. 



