GULF-STEEAM. 199 



& part of it immediately sweeps round Cuba ; but 

 the main stream nearly follows the coast-curve of 

 the Gulf, and at last, pouring out between 

 Florida and Cuba, takes the name of the Gitlf 

 Stream. Narrow at first, it flows round the 

 peninsula of Florida, and, with a speed of 

 about seventy or eighty miles, follows the coast 

 at first in a due north, afterwards in a north- 

 east direction. At the latitude of Washington, 

 it leaves the North American coast altogether, 

 keeping its north-eastward course; and, to the 

 south of the St. George's and Newfoundland 

 Banks, it spreads its waters more and more over 

 the Atlantic Ocean, as far as the Azores.* At 

 these islands a part of it turns southwards again 

 towards the African coast. 



The gulf-stream has, so long as its waters are 

 kept together along the American coast, a tem- 

 perature of 80° C. (176° F.) But even under 

 north latitude 36°, Sabine found it at 23°*3 C. 

 {74° F.) at the beginning of December, while the 

 sea-water beyond the stream showed only 16°' 9 

 C. (62°-5 F.) Under north latitude 40°— 41°, 



* It is well known that the fact of many remains of 

 tropical plants, as well as the corpses of two Indians, 

 having floated to the Azores about the end of the fifteenth 

 century, helped to strengthen Coltdibus in his belief of 

 the existence of a land in the West. 



