aine Maury Corbin.

WORKS.

Navigation.
Scraps from the Lucky Bay, by Harry Bluff.
Rebuilding Southern Commerce.
Wind and Current Charts.
Sailing Directions.
Physical Geography of the Sea.
Series of Geographies.
Physical Survey of Virginia.
Resources of West Virginia (with Wm. M. Fontaine).
Lanes for Steamers Crossing the Atlantic.
Amazon and Atlantic Slopes.
Magnetism and the Circulation of the Atmosphere.

THE GULF STREAM.

(_From Sailing Directions._)

It is not necessary to associate with oceanic currents the idea that
they must of necessity, as on land, run from a higher to a lower
level. So far from this being the case, some currents of the sea
actually run up-hill, while others run on a level. The Gulf Stream is
of the first class. In a paper read before the National Institute in
1844, I showed why the bottom of the Gulf Stream ought, theoretically,
to be an inclined plane, running _upwards_. If the Gulf Stream be 200
fathoms deep in the Florida Pass, and but 100 fathoms off Hatteras, it
is evident that the bottom would be lifted 100 fathoms within that
distance; and therefore, while the bottom of the Gulf Stream runs
up-hill, the top preserves the water-level, or nearly so; for its
banks are of sea-water, and being in the ocean, are themselves on a
water-level. . .

. . . . . . .

I have also, on a former occasion, pointed out the fact, that,
inasmuch as the Gulf Stream is a bed of warm water, lying between
banks of cold water--that as warm water is lighter than
cold--therefore, the surface of the Gulf Stream ought, theoretically,
to be in the shape of a double inclined plane, like the roof a house,
down which we may expect to find a shallow surface or roof current,
running from the middle towards either edge of the stream.

The fact that this roof-current does exist has been fully
established . . . . . . by officers of the navy. Thus, in lowering a
boat to try a current, they found that the boat would invariably be
drifted towards one side or other of the stream, while the vessel
herself was drifted along in the direction of it. . .

This feature of the Gulf Stream throws a gleam of light upon the
_locus_ of the Gulf weed, by proving that its place of growth cannot
be on this side (west) of that stream. No Gulf weed is ever found west
of the axis of the Gulf Stream; and, if we admit the top of the stream
to be higher in the middle than at the