Show IN THE OCEAN such Is in fact the beneficent gulf stream A great dispenser of heat and to which the islands and western europe Oene nilly owe so much A trade wind current that greatest and most wonderful of all the great bodies of water on the earth the gulf stream has been the subject of more extensive and exhaustive study and research by our government than that of any other country for years the coast survey steamer blake has from time to time anchored in the various portions of the gulf stream and the results of her researches cannot help being of great in terest to the vast majority of thinking people and of inestimable benefit to all persons interested in navigation wh the transatlantic trade or the coastwise trade the great river of the atlantic known as the gulf stream from the gulf of mexico to the azores is three thousand miles in length and its greatest breadth is one hundred and twenty at first says the providence journal its speed is four miles an hour but this gradually declines as it becomes more diffuse in the straits of florida its temperature is eighty three degrees or nine decrees above the surrounding water and oil newfoundland in winter it is twenty five or thirty degrees warmer than the surrounding seas thus causing the dense fog of those regions it is a great dispenser of heat and moisture in its course to its influence are owing the verdure of the british islands and the mildness of the climate of western europe compared with countries elsewhere of corresponding sp latitude it is of a deep indigo blue so long as its current is deep and narrow said to be caused by its holding in suspension the finest particles of the river silt brought down by the mississippi the line of demarcation between the gulf stream and the adjacent waters is so marked that a vessel may be seen floating one half in the gulf stream and alie other half in tha common waters of the seas and two buckets let down one at the bow and the other atthe stem will draw up water different in temperature by no less than thirty degrees the late G M bache discovered a band of water so much colder than the rest that he called it the cold wall alie cold water appearing to confine the hot water as if by a wall on the inshore side its distance from sandy hook is from two hundred and thirty to two hundred and eighty miles its distance from cupe may is between one hundred and thirty two and one hundred and seventy sight miles inside of alie cold wall is a warm band and then the cold water of the the axis of the stream takes in general the curve of the coast below rather than above the water being turned to the eastward by the shoals off the southern coast of new england the warm water of the gulf stream rests on a cold current flowing toward cape florida the coldest water keeping near the atlantic coast below the surface if not at it by observations at several points along the coast in four hundred fathoms between sandy hook and cape florida the surface temperature exceeding 80 degrees the thermometer indicated 46 to 55 degrees oft hatteras in 1000 fathoms 40 degrees the warm water of alie gulf stream is of very different depths at different points of its course and in different parts of any one of the sections across it the cause of the gulf stream and of most ocean currents is directly or indirectly due to the wind every wind produces a slight movement of the water over which it blows by its friction on the particles of the surface water As the upper particles acquire a movement the same motion is transmitted to the lower particles thus forming a current with the trades predominating as they do from the eastward and persistently blowing over the same area the current set up extends to seventy or eighty fathoms deep which maintains its average velocity in spite of the daily variations in its producing cause any current upon meeting an obstruction must escape in some direction the current from the southeast trades reaches the south american coast in the vicinity of cape st eegan and it thereupon divides into branches one flowing to the southward along the coast of brazil and the other toward the west indies alie current from alie northeast trades flowing in the general direction of the wind meets the obstruction of the coast of south america and of the windward islands while the remainder passes along abo western side of the west indian islands toward the coast of the united states the current entering the caribbean sea is driven to the westward until it meets the obstruction of the coast of honduras |