2 MADEIRA. 
ever in a state of restlessness, even in the midst of a calm. 
There are few scones in nature so terrific and sublime, so well 
calculated to impress the mind with wonder and admiration, 
as a storm at sea ; and tremendously awful must such a scene 
have appeared to him, 
" Who first to the wild Ocean's rage 
Launch'd the frail bark, and heard the winds engsge 
Tempestuous." 
As we approached Cape Finisterre the water became 
much smoother, but at the same time the effects of the well- 
known current, which flows incessantly towards the Mediter- 
ranean, began to be sensibly felt — a current which, in the 
strait of Gibraltar, is so strong as to prevent ships from pass- 
ing into the Atlantic with a westerly breeze, hov/ever mode- 
rate. This phenomenon has in part been explained by the 
hypothesis of the learned and ingenious Doctor Ilalley, which 
supposes the quantity of water evaporated from the surface 
of the Mediterranean to be greater than the quantity thrown 
into it by the rains and rivers, and consequently that, in 
order to preserve the level by supplying the deficiency, there 
must necessarily be a constant tendency of the Atlantic to 
rush into the Mediterranean. It has since, however, been 
supposed, though as far as my knowledge extends not 
proved, that an under-current sets as constantly out of 
the Mediterranean into the Atlantic. It is always plea- 
sant to find ingenious theory corroborated by simple facts ; 
and as the following experiment, communicated to me by 
Admiral Patton, applies so directly to the point, and accounts 
for the two currents in a manner so satisfactory^, I shall tran- 
