1872.] 



'Shearwater' Scientific Researches. 



603 



" c even as far east as Cape Jakan in the vicinity of Behring's Strait.' — 

 " In two -Monographs since published (' The Northernmost Land of the 

 " Globe,' and ' The Expeditions to the Arctic Ocean north of Behring 

 " Strait, 1G4S tol 8G7'), I have traced a branch of the Gulf-stream up 

 " to Smith's Sound, and another warm current from the Pacific Ocean 

 " through Behring's Strait up to the Polar Land discovered by Kellett 

 " and Long. — Although, since 1865, high authorities have pronounced 

 <c against my theory of the extent and volume of the Gulf-stream, I 

 " cannot but still maintain the same ; and shall now produce the figures 

 " of the actual observations on which it is based, and without which we 

 " but drift into arbitrary suppositions." 



107. With reference to the objections advanced by Mr. Findlay, and by 

 those who maintain the same opinion with him as to the limited agency 

 of the real Gulf-stream, Dr. Petermann says: — "That the Gulf-stream, 

 " in its course towards Europe, receives and unites with a drift corre- 

 " sponding in direction, is probable and natural ; but it is equally cer- 

 " tain that the former is the main body or principal stream of the North 

 " Atlantic waters at all times of the year. Of continental rivers the ex- 

 " pression is used that they have their source or head and their mouth ; 

 " but this does not imply that all the water emptying at the mouth comes 

 " exclusively from the small source. The Florida Stream may be com- 

 " pared with the head of a great river, which is swelled, in its course to 

 " the mouth, by tributaries. In the same manner, then, as a great river- 

 " basin is named from the principal river, it appears proper and to the 

 M purpose to retain for the warm North Atlantic current the name 1 Gulf- 

 " stream.' It surely would be difficult to ascertain where the Florida 

 " Stream ceases really ; where it receives tributaries, and how many ; and 

 " what part of the temperature of the combined stream is ascribable to the 

 " Florida Stream, and what to the tributaries. The name c Gulf-stream ' 

 " has been adopted so generally for the great Oceanic current which bathes 

 " the European shores, that it would be better to call the head and the 

 M first part of the course f Florida Stream,' than to use for the other 

 " part a new and complicated name, instead of one long known and now in 

 " general use." — This view has lately received the sanction of Sir Charles 

 Lyell : — " It has been objected that we have no right to attribute to the in- 

 " fluence of the Gulf-stream the warmth of all the water which we may find 

 " in the Northern Atlantic above the normal temperature of the latitude. 

 " But when recognizing the influence of that stream in the Atlantic, we do 

 " not, as Dr. Petermann justly observes, refer the whole of it to the Current 

 " which flows out of the Gulf of Mexico, or deny that it has received 

 " accessions upon its way : we rather retain the name of Gulf-stream just 

 <% as we do that of a river from its source to its delta, although many tri- 

 " butaries coming from different regions may have swollen and modified 

 " its volume"*. 



* 'Principles of Geology,' Eleventh Edition, vol. i. p, 504. 



