"Wot ever caused the doldrums?"
"That's more nor I can tell," said Larry; "all I know about them is,
that it's aisy to git into them, but uncommon hard to git out again. If
my ould grandmother was here, she'd be able to tell us, I make no doubt,
but she's in Erin, poor thing, 'mong the pigs and the taties."
"Wot could _she_ tell about the doldrums?" said Muggins, with a look of
contempt.
"More nor ye think, boy; sure there isn't nothin' in the univarse but
she can spaik about, just like a book, an' though she niver was in the
doldrums as far as I knows, she's been in the dumps often enough; maybe
it's cousins they are. Anyhow she's not here, an' so we must be contint
with spekilation."
"What's that you say, Larry?" inquired the captain, who walked towards
the bow at the moment.
The cook explained his difficulty.
"Why, there's no mystery about the doldrums," said Captain Dall. "I've
read a book by an officer in the United States navy which explains it
all, and the Gulf Stream, and the currents, an' everything. Come, I'll
spin you a yarn about it."
Saying this, the captain filled and lighted his pipe, and seating
himself on the shank of the anchor, said--
"You know the cause of ocean currents, I dare say?"
"Niver a taste," said Larry. "It's meself is as innocent about 'em as
the babe unborn; an' as for Muggins there, _he_ don't know more about
'em than my ould shoes--"
"Or your old grandmother," growled Muggins.
"Don't be irriverent, ye spalpeen," said Larry.
"I ax her reverence's pardon, but I didn't know she wos a priest," said
Muggins.--"Go on, Cap'n Dall."
"Well," continued the captain, "you know, at all events, that there's
salt in the sea, and I may tell you that there is lime also, besides
other things. At the equator, the heat bein' great, water is evaporated
faster than anywhere else, so that there the sea is salter and has more
lime in it than elsewhere. Besides that it is hotter. Of course, that
being the case, its weight is different from the waters of the cold
polar seas, so it is bound to move away an' get itself freshened and
cooled. In like manner, the cold water round the poles feels obliged to
flow to the equator to get itself salted and warmed. This state of
things, as a natural consequence, causes commotion in the sea. The
commotion is moreover increased by the millions of shell-fish that dwell
there. These creatures, not satisfied with their natural skins, must
needs have shells on their backs, and they extract lime from the
sea-water for the purpose of makin' these shells. This process is
called secretin' the lime; coral insects do the same, and, as many of
the islands of the south seas are made by coral insects, you may guess
that a considerable lot of lime is made away with. The commotion or
disturbance thus created produces two great currents--from the equator
to the poles and from the poles to the equator. But there are many
little odds and ends about the world that affect and modify these
currents, such as depth, and local heat and cold, and rivers and
icebergs, but the chief modifiers are continents. The currents flowin'
north from the Indian Ocean and southern seas rush up between Africa and
America. The space bein' narrow--comparatively--they form one strong
current, on doublin' the Cape of Good Hope, which flies right across to
the Gulf of Mexico. Here it is turned aside and flows in a
nor'-easterly direction, across the Atlantic towards England and Norway,
under the name of the Gulf Stream, but the Gulf of Mexico has no more to
do with it than the man in the moon, 'xcept in the way of turnin' it out
of its nat'ral course. This Gulf Stream is a _river of warm water_
flowing through the cold waters of the Atlantic; it keeps separate, and
wherever it flows the climate is softened. It embraces Ireland, and
makes the climate there so mild that there is, as you know, scarcely any
frost all the year round--"
"Blissin's on it," broke in Larry, "sure that accounts for the purty
green face of Erin, which bates all other lands in the world. Good luck
to the Gulf Stream, say I!"
"You're right, Larry, and England, Scotland, and Norway have reason to
bless it too, for the same latitudes with these places in America have a
rigorous winter extendin' over more than half the year. But what I was
comin' to was this--there are, as you know, eddies and stagnant places
in ornary rivers, where sticks, leaves, and other odds and ends collect
and remain fixed. So, in this great ocean river, there are eddies where
seaweed collects and stagnates, and where the air above also stagnates
(for the air currents are very much like those of the sea). These
eddies or stagnant parts are called sargasso seas. There are several of
them, of various sizes, all over the ocean, but there is one big one in
the Atlantic, which is known by the name of the `Doldrums.' It has
bothered navigators in all ages. Columbus got into it on his way to
America, and hundreds of ships have been becalmed for weeks in it since
the days of that great discoverer. It is not very long since it was
found out that, by keeping well out of their way, and sailing round 'em,
navigators could escape the Doldrums altogether."
The captain paused at this point, and Larry O'Hale took the opportunity
to break in.
"D'ye know, sir," said he, "that same Gulf Strame has rose a lot o'
pecooliar spekilations in my mind, which, if I may make so bowld,
I'll--"