Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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This Immense River Of Hot Waters, After A Course Of
Fifty Days, From The 24th To The 45th Degree Of Latitude, Or 450
Leagues, Does Not Lose, Amidst The Rigours Of Winter In The
Temperate Zone, More Than 3 Or 4 Degrees Of The Temperature It Had
Under The Tropics.
The greatness of the mass, and the small
conductibility of water for heat, prevent a more speedy
refrigeration.
If, therefore, the Gulf-stream has dug a channel at
the bottom of the Atlantic ocean, and if its waters are in motion
to considerable depths, they must also in their inferior strata
keep up a lower temperature than that observed in the same
parallel, in a part of the sea which has neither currents nor deep
shoals. These questions can be cleared up only by direct
experiments, made by thermometrical soundings.
Sir Erasmus Gower remarks, that, in the passage from England to the
Canary islands, the current, which carries vessels towards the
south-east, begins at the 39th degree of latitude. During our
voyage from Corunna to the coast of South America, the effect of
this motion of the waters was perceived farther north. From the
37th to the 30th degree, the deviation was very unequal; the daily
average effect was 12 miles, that is, our sloop drove towards the
east 75 miles in six days. In crossing the parallel of the straits
of Gibraltar, at a distance of 140 leagues, we had occasion to
observe, that in those latitudes the maximum of the rapidity does
not correspond with the mouth of the straits, but with a more
northerly point, which lies on the prolongation of a line passing
through the strait and Cape St. Vincent.
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