CURRENTS AND WHALING. 
481 
flows the Labrador Stream, a current so powerful that we can hardly 
ascribe its origin to the return of the tropical waters of the Atlantic 
alone; and this, it is thought, may be a portion of the Equatorial 
Stream of the Pacific, which, after entering the Icy Sea at Behring’s 
Straits, and forming the current which sets eastward, on the northern 
shores of America, enters the Atlantic, through the many passages of 
that labyrinth of islands and icebergs, and finally returns, to be again 
heated in the tropical climates of the Atlantic. 
There is unquestionably a greater body of colder water lying at 
depths in the equatorial regions of the Atlantic than can be accounted 
for in any other manner than by submarine streams. Separate obser¬ 
vations, made in the Vincennes, Porpoise, and Oregon, at different 
places during the return voyage, exhibited the same low temperature 
at a depth of one hundred fathoms, within a zone lying between the 
parallel of 3° S. and 3° N. The observed temperatures in the several 
vessels differed only a degree from each other, and they agreed nearly 
in the breadth of the first zone. I feel satisfied that the one first met 
with was connected with the cold submarine stream our deep-sea 
temperatures showed when near the Cape de Verdes, on the outward 
voyage. As we crossed the South Atlantic without noticing any 
phenomena of this kind, it may be safely asserted that this body of 
cold water therefore comes from the north. 
But to return to the western branches of the polar streams that set 
upon the two great promontories of the old and new continents : these 
are deflected by the land, and in their new direction flow onwards to 
the equator, and are merged in the western equatorial streams, which, 
directed upon the eastern coasts of the opposite continents, and warmed 
by exposure to the sun, become the heated streams with which our 
recapitulation commenced. 
The number of recorded facts is as yet too few to furnish any thing 
like sufficient satisfactory data inductive to any theory; there can be 
no doubt, however, that the great and sufficient cause is the unequal 
distribution of heat over the earth’s surface. How the streams, cur¬ 
rents, and counter-currents are affected by the continents, is within 
the reach of legitimate inquiry; but how the character and form of 
the bed of the ocean may influence them, seems at present beyond 
investigation. 
The best possible information on the currents is of great importance 
to the navigator; next to the winds they claim his attention; the winds 
in their turn are very much influenced by the former. 
The great and at times perplexing variations of currents have been 
felt by all navigators: these it will be at once seen may be attributed 
2Q 61 
VOL. V. 
