178 Baron N. Schilling on the Constant Currents 



in the western. As we have already remarked, the warmer 

 water accumulated on a coast must flow away polewards, while 

 the cold water of the west side of the sea seeks to occupy the 

 space left free, and so flows towards the equator. It is also in- 

 teresting that Schrenk"* has pointed out the existence of strips 

 of cold water in the warm current of the Japanese Sea. The 

 colder but very slightly less salt water may, under some circum- 

 stances, have exactly the same specific gravity as the warm, 

 somewhat Salter water ; and hence they may flow a long time 

 side by side without mingling. These strips of colder water 

 have not yet been demonstrated in the Brazilian and Mozam- 

 bique currents ; but it is probable that they are present there 

 also, especially in the Brazilian current, which extends further 

 south. Indeed it is likely that these warm currents are sepa- 

 rated from the coast by colder water. 



The Mozambique current, it seems to us, strikingly corre- 

 sponds with the theory of the moon's attraction. It has its 

 origin in the equatorial stream of the Indian Ocean, then fol- 

 lows the east coast of Africa in a south-westerly direction, 

 and, still following the coast, at the southern extremity of the 

 continent takes a westward direction, but thereby comes into 

 the region of the ebb-current and at once, with a remarkably 

 sharp bend, returns eastward. We can only account for this 

 sudden flexion by the action of the moon's attraction ; for it 

 is impossible to admit that the aspirating force of the Indian 

 equatorial stream can occasion this sudden bend in order to 

 carry the Mozambique current to the shores of Australia and 

 New Zealand. Moreover the depth to which the constant 

 ocean-currents extend appears to us to be explicable only by 

 the attraction of the moon and the sun ; for it acts on all 

 the water-particles as far as the bottom of the ocean, if its 

 action below is slightly less than its action above. The cur- 

 rents of the remaining oceans are so perfectly similar to those 

 above discussed, that in describing them we should have to 

 repeat nearly the same things. They are all originated prin- 

 cipally, either directly or indirectly, by the action of the flood- 

 and ebb-currents, and hence can only be satisfactorily explained 

 by that action. 



The currents of the atmosphere rest at all events upon pre- 

 cisely the same laws ; but air-currents are far more susceptible 

 to all possible collateral causes than ocean-currents, and are 

 therefore subject to many other influences, amongst which dif- 

 ference of temperature plays a certain part. Unfortunately this 

 influence has hitherto been considerably overrated; for polar 

 and antipolar currents generated by difference of temperature 

 * Op. cit. p. 56. 





