Page:An account of a voyage to establish a colony at Port Philip in Bass's Strait.djvu/240

( 215 ) No I.

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HOUGH the currents of the ocean have long occupied the attention of scientific men, no general theory has yet been found to answer under all circumstances. It may, I think, be assumed that oceanic currents depend upon principles as fixed as those to which we refer the currents of air; and also, that heat and cold operate in like manner upon both; to these causes may be added the influence of the heavenly bodies, and it is therefore to be regretted, that navigators have never thought of comparing with accuracy the changes and courses of currents with the revolutions of the sun and planets. Colonel Capper observes, that "the currents in the northern Indian ocean, the gulf of Sind, and the bay of Bengal, almost invariably take the same course as