198 CUEEEKTS OF THE SEA. 



twenty-four hours, and a temperature of 23° C. 

 (73 0, 4 P.) Increasing quickly in bulk, and 

 spreading out more and more on both sides of the 

 equator, it flows rapidly due west towards the 

 coast of South America. In the mid-sea, between 

 the two continents, a branch strikes off from it to 

 the north-west, and loses itself at last by its con- 

 tinual widening out, about the twentieth degree of 

 latitude. 



The main stream runs farther west. At the 

 eastern point of South America, Cape Roque, it 

 splits into two arms. One of these, the southern, 

 washes the coast of South America, and, between 

 the tropic of Capricorn and the mouth of the 

 La Plata, beyond the limit of the constant' 

 east-wind, turns gradually to the south-east. It 

 may be traced, in a direction south-east from the 

 Cape of Good Hope, far into the Indian Ocean. The 

 northern arm of the equatorial current follows the 

 north-east coast of South America, gaining con- 

 tinually in temperature under the influence of the 

 tropical sun. Its speed has now increased to 

 sixty-eight miles in twenty-four hours, and by the 

 union with it of the waters of the river Amazon, 

 rises to one hundred miles (6*5 feet in a second), 

 but it soon falls off again when it gets into the 

 Caribbean Sea. Plowing slowly through the 

 whole length of this sea, it reaches the Gulf of 

 Mexico, through the Straits of Yucatan, where 



