Page:Physical Geography of the Sea and its Meteorology.djvu/213

Rh under current from the Mediterranean, we may begin by remarking that we know that there is a current always setting in at the surface from the Atlantic, and that this is a salt-water current, which carries an immense amount of salt into that sea. "We know, moreover, that that sea is not salting up; and therefore, independently of the postulate (§ 374) and of observations, we might infer the existence of an under current, through which this salt finds its way out into the broad ocean again.

384. The drift of the Phoenix.—With regard to this outer and under current, we have observations telling of its existence as long ago as 1712. "In the year 1712," says Dr. Hudson, in a paper communicated to the Philosophical Society in 1724, "Monsieur du L'Aigle, that fortunate and generous commander of the privateer called the Phoenix, of Marseilles, giving chase near Ceuta Point to a Dutch ship bound to Holland, came up vith her in the middle of the Gut between Tariffa and Tangier, and there gave her one broadside, which directly sunk her, all her men being saved by Monsieur du L'Aigle; and a few days after, the Dutch ship, with her cargo of brandy and oil, arose on the shore near Tangier, which is at least four leagues to the westward of the place where she sunk, and directly against the strength of the current, which has persuaded many men that there is a recurrency in the deep water in the middle of the Gut