BERMUDAS: 
2 7 
reluctant to depart from so pleasant a spot, we devoted the next two days to a sounding' and 
dredging cruise round the island. Starting westwards on the 24th, we were soon to be reminded 
of the fact that we had left the charmed circle of the tropics behind us, for on the 26th we 
were assailed by a furious gale from the north-west, in consequence of which, after beating 
about all night under double-reefed topsails, we found ourselves, at noon on the 27th, very 
nearly at the place where we had been the day before. The weather continued rough until 
the 29th. Between one and two o’clock in the afternoon of the 30th, the temperature of the 
sea-surface suddenly rose from i8°.6 to 22°.o C., and we knew that we had crossed the eastern 
edge of the renowned Gulf Stream. The temperature gradually rose, until, at 7 a.m. on the 
following day, May the 1st, it attained 23°.9 C., which proved to be the maximum. Between 
11 p.m. and midnight of the same day it fell as suddenly from I9°.4 to I3°.3 C., which showed 
that we had exchanged the warm flood of the Gulf Stream for the cold water of the 
Labrador Current. Our operations in the Gulf Stream met a serious obstacle in the high 
swell which prevailed all day. The first sounding-line parted, and was lost with all 
the instruments attached. The second apparently never reached the bottom, although 
2400 fathoms had been paid out. We had, however, ocular demonstration of the existence 
of this great oceanic river, for the water was seen spurting up against and running past the 
nipper on the sounding-line with the rapidity of a mill-race, at the rate of about four miles 
an hour. 
The total width of the Gulf Stream at the time of our visit and at the point where we 
crossed was found to be about sixty miles, and the thickness of its warmest surface-stratum 
(temperature from i 8°.3 to 23°.9 C.) 100 fathoms, or 600 feet. At a more advanced season 
of the year the volume of the current is known to be much greater. 
On the 4th May, when about 140 miles from Sandy Hook, the weather being unfavour¬ 
able to our further progress towards New York, we turned about and shaped our course for 
Halifax. On the 6th a brilliant halo was observed round the sun, showing prismatic colours. 
Both air and water were getting colder every hour, and had on the 7th fallen to 3 0 C., or only 
a few degrees above freezing-point. Attired a few days before in the lightest of summer 
garments, we now might be seen energetically walking the deck disguised in Ulster coats 
and sealskin caps. On the same day the dredge, evidently heavily laden, was with much 
effort hoisted on deck. It contained a large block of syenite, weighing about 5 cwt., no 
doubt a boulder which had come borne on an iceberg from the Arctic Regions. Our 
exertions on the following day, when off Cape Sable, were attended with better results. 
While the dredge was collecting a quantity of yellow starfishes on Le Have Bank, at a depth 
of 50 fathoms, our men, having espied a fishing-schooner at work, at once set about to try 
their luck on these famous fishing-grounds, and before long every available point of vantage 
along the ship’s side was occupied by an ardent disciple of Walton. The day was a 
success, both zoologically and gastronomically; about one hundred fish were caught, the 
largest weighing thirty pounds, and no time was lost in placing the white creamy morsels on 
the table. 
