the JVi iter in the Gulf '-fir earn. 339 
heat, though the furrounding water where I obferved it was 
io° below the fuppofed original temperature of ,the water which 
forms the current. From this fmall diminution of the heat, in 
a diftance, probably of 300 miles, fome idea may be acquired 
of the vaff body of fluid which lets out of the gulf of Mexico, 
and of the great velocity of its motion. Numerous obfe* va- 
rious on the temperature of this ftream, in every part of it, 
and at different feafons of the year, compared with the heat of 
the water in the furrounding feas, both within and without 
the tropic, would, I apprehend,, be the beff means of afcer- 
taining its nature, and determining every material circumffance 
of its movement, efpecially if the effect of the current in 
pufhing fhips to the northward is carefully attended to, at the 
fame time with the obfervations upon its heat, 
Oit the 25th of September 1777, as the fhips which had 
tranfported Sir william iiowe’s army upChefapeak Bay were 
returning toward the Delaware, with the fick and ft© res, they 
were overtaken, between Cape Charles and Cape Hinlopen, by 
a violent gale of wind, which, after fome variation, fixed ulti- 
mately at W.N.E.. and continued five days without intermifiion. 
It blew fo hard that we were conffantly lofing ground, and 
driving to the fouthwerdt we alfo purpofely made fome eafting to 
keep clear of the dangerous fhoals which lie off Cape Hatteras. 
The 28th atr noon our latitude was 36° 40' N. and the heat 
of the fea all day about 65°. On the 29th. our latitude- was- 
36° 2 / p we had, therefore, in the courfe of thefe twenty- four 
hours., been driven by the wind 38 nautical miles to the ibuth- 
ward ;; 
