CURRENTS OF THE SEA. 
139 
we have additional evidence touching this China Stream, as to 
which 263) but little, at best, is known, 
266. The Cold Asiatic Current. — Inshore of, but counter to 
the China current, along the eastern shores of Asia, is found 
(§ 257) a streak, or layer, or current of cold water answering to 
that between the Gulf Stream and the American coast. This 
current, like its fellow in the Atlantic, is not strong enough at all 
times sensibly to alFect the course of navigation ; but^ like that in 
the Atlantic, it is the nursery (§ 65) of most valuable fisheries. 
The fisheries of Japan are quite as extensive as those of New- 
foundland, and the people of each country are indebtec^ for their 
valuable supplies of excellent fish to the cold waters which the 
currents of the sea bring down to their shores. 
267. Humboldt's Current. — The currents of the Pacific are 
but little understood. Among those about which most is thought 
to he known is the Humboldt Current of Peru, which the great 
and good man whose name it bears was the first to discover. It 
has been traced on Plate IX. according to the best information 
— defective at best— upon the subject. This current is felt as far 
as the equator. 
268. I have, I beheve, discovered the existence of a warm cur- 
rent in the inter-tropical regions of the Pacific, midway between 
the American coast and the shore-lines of Australia. 
269. This region aifords an immense surface for evaporation. 
No rivers empty into it ; the annual fall of rain, except in the 
Equatorial Doldrums," is small, and the evaporation is all that 
both the northeast and the southeast trade-winds can take up and 
carry ofi". I have marked on Plate IX. the direction of the sup- 
posed warm water current which conducts these overheated and 
briny waters from the tropics in mid ocean to the extra-tropical 
regions where precipitation is in excess. Here being cooled, and 
agitated, and mixed up with waters that are less salt, these over- 
heated and over-salted waters from the tropics may be replenish- 
ed and restored to their rounds in the wonderful system of oceanic 
circulation. 
270. There are also about the equator in this ocean some curi- 
ous currents which I do not understand, and as to which obser- 
vations are not sufficient yet to afibrd the proper explanation or 
description. There are many of them, some of which, at times, 
