An extensive system of currents appears to arise in the Antarctic Ocean.
A current of cold water flowing northward joins the equatorial current
in the Pacific. Entering the Indian Ocean, it maintains its westerly
course until it approaches the shores of Africa; then bending southward
it rushes through the Mozambique Channel, and doubling the Cape of Good
Hope travels northward until it arrives at the Bight of Benin. This
current then joins the equatorial current, and crossing the Atlantic
from the coast of Guinea to that of Brazil, it is divided into two
branches by the projecting headland of Cape San Roque, one flowing
southward and the other northward.
THE GULF STREAM. After passing the Island of Trinidad, this great
oceanic current enters the Gulf of Mexico, and there acquires a high
temperature, and sweeping round that sea it again pours forth into the
Atlantic, forming the most powerful of known currents, called the Gulf
Stream. Issuing from the Gulf of Mexico, this current of warm water
rushes with considerable force through the Bahama Channel; then taking a
northerly course it travels along the eastern shores of North America,
and at Newfoundland is turned to the eastward by an opposing cold
current which sets in from Baffin’s Bay. It now maintains an easterly
direction, and crossing the Atlantic arrives at the Azores in about
twenty-eight days, and divides its waters on the coast of France and
Spain: one portion goes southward and at length joins the grand current
which sets from the coast of Guinea; and another portion travels
northward and skirts the western coasts of Europe. These currents are
seldom more than 500 feet deep.