The Gulf Stream.

Western Star, Issue 2218, 1 July 1898, Page 4

The Gulf Stream.

The warmth of the Gulf Stream is accounted for by the fact that its waters are supplied from the tropics, the tide waves acting on the principle of an eddy, so it has counter currents also. The theory rests upon the assumption that the water is higher on the east than on the west side of the Isthmus of Panama. The continent of America is the great dam of the ocean that forms the Gulf Stream. Place the continent of America so as it will lie east and west, there would he no Gulf Stream. If there were no other land on the globe than America, there would he no ocean currents except those connected with America ; hut such is not the case. Africa lias her nose in the way, Australia and New Zealand Intervene, and Asia is there to stop tides and make ocean currents in the Pacific Ocean. So when we find large bodies of land directly in the patli of the tides we find; 'ocean currents also. All largo oceans have their counter currents or eddies. The water Hint has been carried west by the tides has to return as currents to supply the deficiency, thus imparting the eddy motion. The tides and the winds, with the land and its formations, will produce every circumstance connected with the ocean currents. The peculiar formation of the land lias a good deal to do about getting up the Gulf Stream. —“Health.”