464 
CURRENTS AND WHALING. 
rature, a submarine stream still appears to exist. In lieu of the formei 
we have the current familiarly known as the African Current, by its 
causing so many distressing wrecks on that coast, and to which atten¬ 
tion has often been drawn by the captivity and cruel slavery to which 
their crews have been subjected. 
As has been seen in the Narrative, but little surface current was 
found on our voyage from Madeira to the Cape de Verdes; but the sub¬ 
marine stream was still found, as was shown by the low temperatures 
of the deep-sea soundings. At, and in the neighbourhood of the latter 
islands, and between them and Cape Verde on the African coast, a 
strong surface current is felt. In endeavouring to account for this 
remarkable circumstance of the creation of a current, and its increased 
velocity, of which every navigator must be aware w T hen in the 
neighbourhood of many islands, and the effects of which we have often 
experienced in our long voyage, I shall now advert to the cause which 
I think is quite sufficient to produce the effect; and that is the accumu¬ 
lation of water caused by the obstructions that islands offer to the 
onward flow of submarine streams; thus raising the level of the ocean 
in their vicinity, and consequently a tendency to run off, and thereby 
cause a current where none was perceptible before, or an increased 
velocity in that which was felt. 
To this cause, then, I believe the currents around the Cape de 
Verde Islands owe their origin, as well as all others prevailing near 
islands and banks; and as corroborative proof of this I will mention the 
fact that where no submarine polar stream exists, permanent currents 
are not found. This will, I trust, be amply shown in the sequel. 
That remarkable current along the coast of Guinea, from which it 
derives its name, passing Cape Palmas, and flowing into the Bight of 
Benin, I attribute to the same cause. This current is in the immediate 
vicinity of the Equatorial Stream, but runs in an opposite direction, 
and for a long distance parallel to it. Of this current the following 
remarks were made by Colonel Sabine, when he passed it in H. B. M- 
ship Pheasant, Captain Clavering, in 1822 . 
“ In the voyage between Cape Mount and Cape Three Points, in 
April and May, 1822 , the Pheasant’s progress appears to have been 
accelerated one hundred and eighty miles by the current called the 
Guinea Current, which, in the season when the southwest winds pre¬ 
vail on this part of the coast, runs with considerable velocity, in the 
direction of the land, from Cape Palmas to the eastern part of the 
Gulf of Guinea. The breadth of this current, abreast of Cape Palmas, 
varies with the season, and has been found as much as one hundred 
and eighty miles; but, in its subsequent course to the eastward, it 
