MARINE BOTANY. 9 



with land in temperate or low latitudes, is warmer than the 

 wide ocean in similar parallels. Hence, during summer, 

 the temperature of the Mexican Sea, according to the same 

 observer, is 86 deg. Fahr., or at least 8 deg. above that of 

 the Atlantic. From this great reservoir, or cauldron, of 

 warm water, a constant current pours forth through the 

 Straits of Bahama, at the rate of three or four miles an 

 hour, crossing the ocean in a north-easterly direction, and 

 skirting the great bank of Newfoundland, where it still 

 retains a temperature of 8 deg. above that of the watery 

 plain through which it flows. Onward goes that current, 

 with the same unerring precision, following a prescribed 

 course, and swerving neither to the right nor left for nearly 

 three thousand geographical miles, till having reached the 

 Azores in about seventy-eight days from its source in the 

 Gulf or Sea of Mexico, it sometimes extends its progress a 

 thousand miles further, to the Bay of Biscay, retaining an 

 excess of 5 deg. above the mean temperature of that sea 

 Nor less curious is the fact, that this oceanic river reaches 

 the Bay of Biscay in the months of November and January, 

 and tends, most probably, to moderate the cold of winter in 

 countries on the west of Europe.* 



Hooker traced the Fucus nodosus and Fucus serratus on 

 the northern edge of this vast current, from lat. 36, to Eng- 

 land. At that point also, in the centre of the North Atlantic, 

 between the parallels of 33 deg. and 35 deg., which Rennell 

 terms the recipient of its heated waters, spreads the sargosso, 

 sargasswn, bacciferum, in incredible profusion. Yoyagers 

 relate that it is seen floating and sparkling in the sun-beams, 

 and presenting an exquisite variety of mingling hues. 



3rd. The region of the Mediterranean, which may also 

 be regarded as a sub-region of the 4th, or warmer temperate 

 zone of the Atlantic, between lat. 23 N. and lat. 40 N. 



* Rennell on Currents?. 



