The Gulf Stream's Course.

Otago Witness, Issue 1895, 16 March 1888, Page 32

The Gulf Stream's Course.

The Gulf Stream derives its name from the Gulf of Mexico, out of which it flows between the coast of Florida on one side, and Cuba and the Bahama Islands and shoals on the other. With a breadth of about 50 miles in its narrowest portion, and a speed at times of live miles an hour, it flows along the American coast in a north-easterly direction, gradually widening in volume and slackening in velocity until it reaches Newfoundland, where it turns off and orosses the Atlantic in two portions— one turning eastwards towards the Azores and Morocco, the other coming to lave the shores of Britain, Norway, Sec. Its waters are of a deep blue, which clearly defines it from the light green of the seas through which it passes in its early course ; and it abounds with masses of seaweed, and with fish and animalcule. As it leaves the M« dean Gulf it has a warmth of 86deg Fan., several degrees higher than that of tbe ocean at the equator; and even by the time it has reached the coast of Labrador the temperature has only fallen to 7odeg. Ships off the American coast sometimes seek relief in this warm current, and tho change is so sudden that, when a vessel is crossing the line, two thermometers, dropped at the same instant from bow and stern will show a difference of 30deg.