Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 16 of 208 - First - Home
The Waters Are Still Acted Upon By The Impulsion
They Received Near A Thousand Leagues Distance, In The Straits Of
Florida, Between The Island Of Cuba And The Shoals Of Tortoise
Island.
This distance is double the length of the course of the
river Amazon, from Jaen or the straits of Manseriche to Grand Para.
On the meridian of the islands of Corvo and Flores, the most
western of the group of the Azores, the breadth of the current is
160 leagues.
When vessels, on their return from South America to
Europe, endeavour to make these two islands to rectify their
longitude, they are always sensible of the motion of the waters to
south-east. At the 33rd degree of latitude the equinoctial current
of the tropics is in the near vicinity of the Gulf-stream. In this
part of the ocean, we may in a single day pass from waters that
flow towards the west, into those which run to the south-east or
east-south-east.
From the Azores, the current of Florida turns towards the straits
of Gibraltar, the isle of Madeira, and the group of the Canary
Islands. The opening of the Pillars of Hercules has no doubt
accelerated the motion of the waters towards the east. We may in
this point of view assert, that the strait, by which the
Mediterranean communicates with the Atlantic, produces its effects
at a great distance; but it is probable also, that, without the
existence of this strait, vessels sailing to Teneriffe would be
driven south-east by a cause which we must seek on the coasts of
the New World. Every motion is the cause of another motion in the
vast basin of the seas as well as in the aerial ocean. Tracing the
currents to their most distant sources, and reflecting on their
variable celerity, sometimes decreasing as between the gulf of
Florida and the bank of Newfoundland; at other times augmenting, as
in the neighbourhood of the straits of Gibraltar, and near the
Canary Islands, we cannot doubt but the same cause which impels the
waters to make the circuitous sweep of the gulf of Mexico, agitates
them also near the island of Madeira.
On the south of that island, we may follow the current, in its
direction south-east and south-south-east towards the coast of
Africa, between Cape Cantin and Cape Bojador. In those latitudes a
vessel becalmed is running on the coast, while, according to the
uncorrected reckoning, it was supposed to be a good distance out at
sea. Were the motion of the waters caused by the opening at the
straits of Gibraltar, why, on the south of those straits, should it
not follow an opposite direction? On the contrary, in the 25th and
26th degrees of latitude, the current flows at first direct south,
and then south-west. Cape Blanc, which, after Cape Verd, is the
most salient promontory, seems to have an influence on this
direction, and in this parallel the waters, of which we have
followed the course from the coasts of Honduras to those of Africa,
mingle with the great current of the tropics to resume their tour
from east to west. Several hundred leagues westward of the Canary
Islands, the motion peculiar to the equinoctial waters is felt in
the temperate zone from the 28th and 29th degrees of north
latitude; but on the meridian of the island of Ferro, vessels sail
southward as far as the tropic of Cancer, before they find
themselves, by their reckoning, eastward of their right course.* (*
See Humboldt's Cosmos volume 1 page 312 Bohn's edition.)
We have just seen that between the parallels of 11 and 43 degrees,
the waters of the Atlantic are driven by the currents in a
continual whirlpool. Supposing that a molecule of water returns to
the same place from which it departed, we can estimate, from our
present knowledge of the swiftness of currents, that this circuit
of 3800 leagues is not terminated in less than two years and ten
months. A boat, which may be supposed to receive no impulsion from
the winds, would require thirteen months to go from the Canary
Islands to the coast of Caracas, ten months to make the tour of the
gulf of Mexico and reach Tortoise Shoals opposite the port of the
Havannah, while forty or fifty days might be sufficient to carry it
from the straits of Florida to the bank of Newfoundland. It would
be difficult to fix the rapidity of the retrograde current from
this bank to the shores of Africa; estimating the mean velocity of
the waters at seven or eight miles in twenty-four hours, we may
allow ten or eleven months for this last distance. Such are the
effects of the slow but regular motion which agitates the waters of
the Atlantic. Those of the river Amazon take nearly forty-five days
to flow from Tomependa to Grand Para.
A short time before my arrival at Teneriffe, the sea had left in
the road of Santa Cruz the trunk of a cedrela odorata covered with
the bark. This American tree vegetates within the tropics, or in
the neighbouring regions. It had no doubt been torn up on the coast
of the continent, or of that of Honduras. The nature of the wood,
and the lichens which covered its bark, bore evidence that this
trunk had not belonged to these submarine forests which ancient
revolutions of the globe have deposited in the polar regions. If
the cedrela, instead of having been cast on the strand of
Teneriffe, had been carried farther south, It would probably have
made the whole tour of the Atlantic, and returned to its native
soil with the general current of the tropics. This conjecture is
supported by a fact of more ancient date, recorded in the history
of the Canaries by the abbe Viera. In 1770, a small vessel laden
with corn, and bound from the island of Lancerota, to Santa Cruz,
in Teneriffe, was driven out to sea, while none of the crew were on
board.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 16 of 208
Words from 15318 to 16335
of 211363