CURRENTS AND WHALING. 465 



enlarges to nearly three hundred, and occupies the whole space between 

 the land on one side, and the Equatorial Current, running in an oppo- 

 site direction, on the other. The velocity abreast of Cape Palmas and 

 Cape Three Points, and in the vicinity of the land, was, in the month 

 of May, about two miles in the hour; and farther to the eastward, 

 where the Pheasant crossed its breadth, from Cape Formosa to St. 

 Thomas's, and where its velocity had been much diminished by the 

 dissipation of its waters, it was found to preserve a general rate. of 

 rather less than a mile an hour, and a direction a few degrees to the 

 southward of east. 



" The general temperature of the stream in the mid-channel, in the 

 Gulf of Guinea, in April and May, exceeds 84°, diminishing from 

 82° and 83° on its southern border, where it is in contact with the 

 colder water of the Equatorial Current ; and occasionally to between 

 79° and 8I5 on its northern side, in the proximity of land. 



" In the passage between the river 'Gaboon and Ascension, being a 

 distance of one thousand four hundred miles, the Pheasant was aided 

 by the current above three hundred miles in the direction of her 

 course. 



" But the more important distinction, both in amount and in utility 

 in navigation, is between the waters of the Equatorial and Guinea 

 Currents. These exhibit the remarkable phenomenon of parallel 

 streams, in contact with each other, flowing with great velocity in 

 opposite directions, and having a difference of temperature amounting 

 to ten or twelve degrees. Their course continues to run parallel to 

 each other, and to the land, for above one thousand miles; and, ac- 

 cording as a vessel, required to proceed along the coast in either 

 direction, is placed in the one or in the other current, will her course 

 be aided from forty to fifty miles a day, or retarded to the same 

 amount." 



This Guinea Current is lost in the Bight of Benin, near Prince's 

 Island ; which lies under the equator, in the longitude of 7° E., and 

 it is confined and obstructed by a southern polar stream, much in the 

 same manner as the Labrador is affected by the Gulf Stream on the 

 coast of the United States, and which is supposed to be lost near Cape 

 Hatteras. 



Beyond the Cape de Verdes, overfalls, rips, and a continual tendency 

 to change in the surface of the ocean, are experienced, as if two great 

 conflicting submarine currents were meeting at some depth beneath 

 the surface. 



As we proceeded on our route from Porto Praya to Rio Janeiro, 

 the same appearances continued ; but we did not meet the Equatorial 



vol. v. 59 



