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Show [ 124 ] Fair CAssiA tretnbling hears the howling woods, And trufts her tawny children to the floods.- explaining this circumfl:ance; which is, that the American lakes lie above the level of the ocean, and are hence perpetually defalited by the rivers which run through them; which is not the cafe with the Mediterranean, into which a current from the main ocean perpetually paffes. Ca.!Jia. I. 415. Ten males, one female. The feeds are black, the fl:amcns gold-colour. This is one of the American fruits, which are annually thrown on the coafl:s of Norway; and are frequently in fo recent a fl:ate as to vegetate, when properly taken care of, the fruit of the anacardium, call1ew-nut; of cucurbita lagcnaria, bottle-gourd; of the mimofa fcandens, cocoons; of the pifcidia erythrina, logwoocl-trec; and cocoanuts are enumerated by Dr. Tonning, (Amxn. Acad. I4·9·) amongfl: thefe emigrant feed s. The faCl: is truly wonderful, and cannot be accounted for but by the exifl:ence of under currents in the depths of the ocean; or from vortexes of water paffing from one country to another through caverns of the> earth. Sir Hans Sloane has given an account of four kinds of feeds which are frequently thrown by the fea upon the coafl:s of the iflands of the northern parts of Scotland. Phil. Tranf. abridged, Vol. III. p. 540, which feeds are natives of the Wcfl: Indies, and fcem to be brought thither by the gulf-fl:ream defcribecl below. One of thefe is called, by Sir H. Sloane, Pha~ :olu s maximus perennis, which is often thrown alfo on the coafl:s of Kerry in Ireland; another is called in Jamaica Horfe-eye-bean; and a th ird is called Niker in Jamaica. He adds, that the Lenticula marina, or Sargoffo, grows on the rocks about Jamaica, is carried by the winds and current towards the coafl:s of Florida, and thence into the North-American ocean, where it lies very thick on the furfacc of the fea. Thus a rapid current paffes from the gulph of l'loricb to th e N. E. along the coa{l of North America, known to feamcn by the name of the GuLF-STR EAM. A chart of thi s was publi01ed by Dr. Franklin in q68, from the informat ion principally of C ap t. Folger. This was confirmed by the jngcni011S experiments of Dr. Blagden, publifhcd in J78I, who found that the water of the gulf-ftream was from fix to eleven degrees warmer than the water of the fea through which it ran; which mufl: have been oc.cafioned by its being brought from a hotter climate. He afcribcs the origin of this current to the power of the t:ade-winds, which, blowing always in the fame direCtion, carry the ~atcrs of the Atlant1c ocean to the wefl:ward, till they are fl:oppcd by the oppofing contment on the weft of the Gulf of Mexico, and arc thus accumulated there, and run down the Gulf of F lorida. Philof. Tranf. V. 7 r, p. 335· Governor Pown::d has given [ r~s ] CinB:ured with gold while ten fond brothers fl:and, And guard the beauty on her native land, Soft breathes t.he gale, the current gently moves, And bears to Norway's coa.fis her infant-loves. -So the fad tnother at the tnoon of night Frotn bloody Memphis fl:ole her filent flight Wrapp'd her dear babe beneath her folded veft, And clafp' d the treafure to her throbl->ing breafl, With foothing whifpers huih' d its feeble cry, '420 425 Prcfs' d the foft kifs, and breath' d the fecret fig h.- an elegant map of tltis Gulf-fl:rcam, tracing it from the Gulf of !'lorida northward as far as C ape Sable in Nova Scotia, and then acrofs the Atlantic ocean to the coafl: of Africa, between the Canary Iflands and Senegal, incrcafing in breadth, as it runs, till it occupies five or fix degrees of latitude. The Governor likcwife afcribes. this current to the force of the trade-winds protruding the waters weflward, till they are oppofed by the continent, and accumubtcd in the Gulf of Mexico. He very ingeniou!1y obfcrves, that <~ great eddy mufl: be produced in the Atlantic ocean bet\vecn this Gulf-flream and the wcfle rly current protruded by the tropical winds, and in this eddy are found the imm enf~.: fi elds of floating vegetabl es, called Saragofa weeds, and Gulf ·weeds, and fome light woods, which circulate in thefe vafl: eddies, or arc occafionally driven out of them by the winds. Hydraulic and Nautical Obfervations by Governor Pownal, q87. Other cmrents are mentioned by the Governor in this ingenious work, as thofe in the Indian Sea, northward of the line, which arc afcribcclto the influence of the Monfoons. It is probable, that in procefs of ·time the narrow traCt of land on the wefl: of the Gulph of Mexico, may be worn avvay by this elevat ion of water dafhing againfl: it, by"' hich this immen fe current would ceafe to cxifl:, and a wonderful change take place in the Gulf of Mexico and Wcfl-Indian iflands, by the fubfiding of the fea, which might probably lay all thofe i!lands into one, or join them to the continent, |