. The Gulf Stream is
simply the stream of equatorial hot water that flows towards the pole
through the Atlantic. Its fountain-head is the region of the equator,
_not_ the Gulf of Mexico; but it is carried, by the conformation of the
land, into that gulf and deflected by it, and from it out into the ocean
in the direction of Europe. This stream in the Atlantic is well
defined, owing to the comparative narrowness of that sea.

The Gulf Stream, then, is like a river of oil in the ocean,--it
preserves its distinctive character for more than three thousand miles.
It flows towards the polar regions, and the waters of those regions flow
in counter-currents towards the equator, because of the fixed law that
water must seek its equilibrium as well as its level, thus keeping up a
continuous circulation of the hot waters towards the north and the cold
towards the south. There are similar currents in the Pacific, but they
are neither so large nor so regular as those of the Atlantic, owing to
the wide formation of the basin of the former sea.

The effect of the Gulf Stream on climate is very great. The dreary
fur-trading establishment of York Factory, on the shores of Hudson's
Bay, is surrounded by a climate of the most rigorous character--the
thermometer seldom rising up so high as zero during many months, and
often ranging down so low as 50 degrees below zero, sometimes even
lower, while the winter is seven or eight months long: the lakes and
rivers are covered with ice upwards of six feet thick, and the salt sea
itself is frozen. Yet this region lies in the same latitude with
Scotland, York Factory being on the parallel of 57 degrees north, which
passes close to Aberdeen! The difference in temperature between the two
places is owing very much, if not entirely, to the influence of the Gulf
Stream.

Starting from its caldron in the Gulf of Mexico, it carries a freight of
caloric towards the North Atlantic. Owing partly to the diurnal motion
of the Earth on its axis, its flow trends towards the east; hence its
warm waters embrace our favoured coasts, and ameliorate our climate,
while the eastern sea-board of North America is left, in winter, to the
rigour of unmitigated frost.

But besides the powerful influence of this current on climate, it exerts
a very considerable influence on navigation. In former times, when men
regarded the ocean as a great watery waste--utterly ignorant of the
exquisite order and harmonious act