162 
THE GULF STKEAM. 
July, 1891. 
of the moisture-laden air of the warm stream with the cold 
air of the other stream results in the widespread and intense 
fogs that are so prevalent off Newfoundland. 
The severe cold of the winter climate in America is 
illustrated by plant life ; ivy and hawthorn are not known 
there out of doors, because the winters are too severe for 
them to live through ; and a special pleasure to Americans in 
visiting England is to see the ivy-covered buildings, and the 
hawthorn hedges in blossom and leaf. 
The opposite effect on plant life of the warm Gulf Stream 
is illustrated by the myrtles and fuchsias growing out of doors 
through the winter on the west coast of England and 
Scotland; and in Norway by the large number of flowering 
plants growing luxuriantly in such high northern latitudes 
and extending even on to the North Cape, which is only 19 
degrees, or 1300 miles 5 distance, from the North Pole itself. 
The direction of motion of the Gulf Stream on leaving 
the Gulf of Mexico is north-east, crossing the Atlantic 
obliquely, and this is due not entirely to the direction of the 
American coast, but partly to the circumstance of the 
difference in velocity of rotation of the different parts of the 
earth’s surface that are passed over by the stream of water. 
At the equator, the velocity of rotation of the surface is 
1,000 miles an hour ; the diameter of the earth being 8,000 
miles, and the circumference 24,000 miles, which is passed 
round in twenty-four hours, or at the rate of 1,000 miles an 
hour from west to east. This velocity of rotation of the 
surface of the earth diminishes in proceeding northwards, 
becoming nothing at the Pole, the velocity being about 900 
miles an hour where the Gulf Stream starts, and only 300 
miles an hour when reaching the North Cape; so that a 
difference in velocity of as much as 600 miles an hour has to 
be lost by the water in the passage, which gives the stream a 
constant tendency to over-run the surface of the earth in an 
easterly direction, giving the easterly direction to the stream. 
The Arctic Current is just in the opposite condition; it starts 
with a rotating velocity of only 300 miles an hour, which 
has to be increased in the passage to 900 miles an hour, 
causing a constant tendency to lag behind in a westerly 
direction, and the current consequently runs close to the 
American shore throughout its course. The coldness of the 
water that is thus maintained along the shore has a marked 
result in the excellent quality of the fish that are caught 
along the eastern coast of America, the temperature of the 
water along the coast being several degrees lower than the 
general temperature of the ocean. 
