Physical Geography of Ilindostan. 343 



pools and currents, such as the gigantic Gulf Stream, come to 

 perforin their part in the same gigantic drama. The cur- 

 rent just named sweeps from the Cape of Good Hope across 

 the South Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico, and by the Straits 

 of the Bahamas. Here it turns to the eastward again, tra- 

 velling along the coast of America at the rate of from forty 

 to a hundred miles a day : it now stands once more across 

 the Atlantic, and divides itself into two branches — one finds 

 its way into the Northern Sea, warming the adjoining waters 

 as it advances, and turning back, most likely to form a second 

 great whirlpool, rejoining the original stream near New- 

 foundland. The main branch seeks the northern shores of 

 Europe, and, sweeping along the coast of Spain and Portugal, 

 travels southward by the Azores to rejoin the main whirl- 

 pool. The waters of this vast ocean river are to the north of 

 the tropic greatly warmer than those around : the climate of 

 every country it approaches is improved by it, and the Lap- 

 lander is enabled by its means to live, and cultivate his barley 

 in a latitude which everywhere else, throughout the world, 

 is condemned to perpetual sterility. But there are other laws 

 which the great sea obeys, which peculiarly adapt it as the 

 vehicle of interchange of heat and cold betwixt those regions 

 where either exists in excess. Water, which contracts re- 

 gularly from the boiling point downwards, at a temperature 

 of 40° has reached its maximum of density, and thence begins 

 to grow lighter. But for this beneficent provision, the various 

 recesses of the frozen ocean would be continually occupied with 

 a fluid, at the freezing point, which the least access of cold 

 would convert into one solid mass of ice. The non-conducting 

 power of water, which at present acts so valuable a part in the 

 general economy, so far from being a blessing would be a curse. 

 No warmth could ever penetrate to thaw the foundations of 

 the frozen mass — no water find its way to float it from its 

 foundations, so that, like the everlasting hills themselves, 

 rooted immoveably in its place, every year adding to its 

 volume, the solid structure would continually advance to 

 the southward, hermetically sealing the Polar Ocean, thus con- 

 demned to utter desolation, and encroaching on the North Sea 

 itself. Under existing circumstances, so soon as water is 

 cooled down to 40" it sinks to the bottom, and, still eight de- 



