CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 479 



there found it only five degrees lower than at the surface. This second 

 submarine stream was found to be about eighty miles in width : we 

 crossed it steering a northwest-by-north course. It may be that these 

 submarine streams flow here to the south, and produce the southerly 

 current we experienced. It was quite evident, from the numerous 

 long lines of rips that we passed, that opposing currents existed of 

 great force, which did not find their way to the surface. These rips 

 extended in a north-northwest and south-southeast direction. 



During the next five days, we pursued our homeward course 

 rapidly, experiencing but little current. On the 26th, we reached 

 the latitude of 16° N., and longitude 48° 31' W. The temperature 

 at one hundred fathoms depth, differed only three degrees from that 

 at the surface, and continued to vary between that and seven degrees, 

 until we struck soundings. 



On the 28th, we encountered quantities of the Fucus natans, or gulf- 

 weed, which was of a dark brown colour, and evidently undergoing 

 decomposition. The peculiarity of this weed arranging itself into 

 long strips in the direction of the wind, was distinctly seen. Some of 

 these were more than a mile in length, while at other times we passed 

 through fields of several acres in extent. During this and the 

 previous day, as well as the two following days, the current was found 

 to set to the southward, at the rate of about eighteen miles in twenty- 

 four hours. 



On the 2d of June, we had reached latitude 29° N., and longitude 

 68° W. ; and the wind, which had been gradually hauling from the 

 northward and eastward round to the south-southwest, began to fail 

 us. We had light and variable breezes from this day until the 8th, 

 when we reached the neighbourhood of the Gulf Stream, and expe- 

 rienced the weather that is peculiar to it. The lightning was very 

 vivid, and the rain fell in torrents; its temperature was 63°. In the 

 latter part of the day it blew a strong gale from the eastward. I 

 regretted this much, as it was my intention to make full experi- 

 ments on the deep temperature and the velocity of the current in the 

 Stream; but the roughness of the sea and violence of the wind pre- 

 vented it. The close proximity to our port also, and the increasing 

 impatience of all on board to reach their homes, forbade all unne- 

 cessary delay. The experiments we did make gave a difference 

 of three degrees of temperature, between the surface and one hun- 

 dred fathoms depth. The highest temperature of the surface expe- 

 rienced while crossing the Stream was 79° ; when we entered, it 



