the Water in the Gulf- fire emu 
obliquely on the weftern fide, we pufhed out again oh the fame 
fide as foon 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 Gidf-ftream was about 2° lefs. The feafons of the 
year, indeed, were very different; but, perhaps, ' under fuch 
circumftances that their effedts 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 pail but a fliort time. Calculating upon this propor- 
tion we may be led to fufpeQy that about the 2^th degree of 
latitude, which is as foon as the ftream has got clear of the 
gulf of Florida, it begins fenfibly to lofe its heat from 82°, the 
fuppofed temperature of the gulf of Mexico, and continues to 
lofe it at the rate of about 2 0 of Fahrenheit’s fcale to every f 
of latitude, with fome variation, probably as the furrounding 
fea, and the air, are warmer or colder at different feafons of 
the year. 
The preceding fadts had made me very defirous of observing 
the heat of the Gulf-ftream on my paflage homeward ; but a 
violent gale of wind, which came on two days after we had 
failed from Sandy Hook, difabled every perfoii aboard, who 
knew how to handle a thermometer, from keeping the deck. 
The mafter of the fhip, however, an intelligent man, to whom 
1 had communicated my views, affured me, that on the fecorid 
day of the gale the water felt to him remarkably warm ; we 
were then near the ^oth degree of weft longitude. This agrees 
very well with the common remark of Teamen, whb alledge, 
that they are frequently fenfible of the Gulf-ftream off Nan- 
Vol. LXXL ’ Z 'z • : tucket 
