the Water in the Gulf -Jit earn, J + 1 
'obliquely oft the weftern Me, we puflied out again oft the fame 
fide as loon as the gale abated. 
Thefe obfervations having been made three degrees to the 
northward of my former ones, it is curious to obferve, that the 
heat of the Gulf- ft ream was about 2° lefs-. The feafons of the 
vear, indeed, were very different ; but, perhaps, tinder fuch 
circumftances that their effects were nearly balanced. In the 
latter obfervations the meridian altitude of the fun was lefs ; 
but then a hot fummer preceded them : whereas in the former, 
though the fun’s power was become very great, yet the winter 
had been paft but a fliort time. Calculating upon this propor- 
tion we may be led to fufpedt, that about the 27th degiee of 
latitude, which is as foon as the ftream has got clear of the 
gulf of Florida-, it begins fenlibly to i'ofe its heat from 82% the 
fuppofed temperature of the gulf of Mexico, and continues to 
lofeit at the rate of about 2° of Fahrenheit’s fcale to every f 
of latitude, with fome variation, probably as the fur rounding 
fea, and the air* are warmer or colder at different feafons of 
the year* 
The preceding fa&s had made me Very defirous of obferving 
the heat of the Gulf-ftream on my paffage homeward; but a 
violent gale of wind, which came on two days after we had 
failed from Sandy Hook, difabled every perfon aboard, who 
knew how to handle a thermometer, from keeping the deck. 
The mafter of the ftiip, however, an intelligent man* to whom 
1 had communicated my views, allured me, that on the fecond 
day of the gale the water felt to him remarkably warm; we 
were then near the 70th degree of weft longitude. I his agrees 
very well with the common remark of feameii, who alledge* 
that they are frequently- fenfible of the Gulf-ftream, oft Nan- 
Vol. LXXL z z tucket 
