Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 8).djvu/367

 It was interestingly painful to see the exhausted bird winging her tedious way along the surface of the deep; and it spake of the hopeless spirit,—a wanderer over the fields of its own desolation.

After passing Port Matansas, we doubled Cape Florida, entered the Gulf of this name, and came in sight of the Keys, and of the principal island of Bahama. Here the Gulf stream quickened our progress about three knots per hour. The waters of this stream, influenced by the trade winds and other causes, flow through the Caribbean islands, and enter the Mexican Gulf between Cuba and the Promontory of Yucatan. Compressed by the surrounding coasts, it pursues its course between East Florida and the Bahama Islands, and runs along the coast of North America to the Banks of Newfoundland. From thence, it passes through the Azores {254} to the south, and gradually mingles its waters with those of the ocean. Some suppose, that this impetus is preserved until the water strikes that part of the Equator from whence it commenced its course. It is probable that the trade winds operate, at first, with great violence; because, owing to the centrifugal force of the water, occasioned by the diurnal motion of the earth around its axis, the sea is elevated at the Equator, much more than at the poles.

The nearest distance of the Gulf Stream from the United States is about seventy-five miles; and its breadth is about forty miles. Such is the rapidity of this stream, that it retains a considerable degree of its tropical heat, even after reaching its most easterly point of destination. The colour of the water of the Gulf is dark, and its depth very great. This latter circumstance is, probably, occasioned by the force of the current at the bottom, and by its curvilineal form on the surface. It may be presumed, that in the vicinity of the Gulf the progress of ves