202 CURRENTS OF THE SEA. 



and about the Cape Verde Islands increases 

 more and more in strength. Farther south this 

 current bends with the coast, and flows along that 

 of Guinea with considerable swiftness exactly 

 from west to east, so that here there are two 

 strong currents running near each other in oppo- 

 site directions. The temperature of the Guinea 

 current is, by reason of the hot north-east wind 

 that blows from the continent, some degrees 

 higher than that of the equatorial stream, into 

 which the former does not pass till it is turned 

 again by the African coast about the equator. 



A second current comes from the south, bringing 

 cold water to supply the equatorial stream. This 

 comes from the Indian Ocean, from which it flows 

 in a west and south-westward direction on both 

 sides of the island of Madagascar, towards the 

 southern end of Africa; it sweeps round the Cape 

 of Good Hope, bends to the north, and, gradually 

 taking a more westward course, loses itself at 

 length in the equatorial stream. 



The South Atlantic Ocean, beyond 40° south 

 latitude, is not heated, like the seas that wash the 

 coasts of Europe, by warm currents ; but, on the 

 contrary, it is everywhere open to the free entrance 

 of the cold waters of the Antarctic Ocean, and of 

 the drift-ice, during the summer months. The most 

 southern parts of America, Terra del Fuego, the 

 Falkland Isles, South Georgia, Sandwich- 



