THE OCEAN CURRENTS AROUND AUSTRALIA. 191 



The southern branch continues as an easterly surface 

 current across the Bight, with a rate varying from '3 to *4 

 knot as far as Spencer Gulf. The warm current from the 

 Indian Ocean, which appears to be confined to the Bight, 

 to that point, here dips below and becomes partly merged 

 in the main stream until it strikes the Tasmanian Plateau. 

 This obstruction, by deflecting the current to the south-east, 

 causes a further mixing of the warm and cold waters, which 

 accounts for the water in Bass' Strait being generally from 

 2° to 4° colder than the water off Cape Northumberland. 



The Tasmanian plateau obstruction also causes a local 

 retardation of the current velocity in Bass' Strait, to such 

 an extent that the tidal currents become the more impor- 

 tant, while both are, to a large extent, dominated by the 

 wind. 



The main body of the Southern Ocean current sweeps 

 along the western side of the plateau, turning sharply and 

 with increased velocity to the left, at the southern coast 

 of Tasmania, and continues its majestic course north- 

 easterly and easterly around the world. 



Eastern Australian Current. — The Eastern Australian 

 current, unlike that of the Southern Ocean, is a stream 

 current, being a branch of the South Pacific Equatorial 

 current, which after passing to the southward of the Fiji 

 Islands and New Caledonia, is deflected towards the 

 Australian coast. It first strikes the eastern Australian 

 shore line near Great Sandy Island, where it is again 

 deflected, this time to the southward, and flows, under the 

 name of the Eastern Australian current close along the 

 shores of southern Queensland and New South Wales as 

 far as Jervis Bay. The coast line here bends slightly to 

 the westward while the current continues its course south- 

 wards until it impinges upon the Southern Ocean current 

 flowing eastwards, at about Latitude 43° South. It is here 



