North America . he rateof from four to five miles an hour. Its temperature is about8o° F. It is estimated that this great river in the oceancarries 90,000,000,000 tons of water per hour past a givencross-section. Its course is northward along the immedi-ate border of the continental shelf until it arrives oppositethe Carolina coast, and thence northeastward, thus givingit a constantly increasing distance from the land. To thenorth of the Bahamas it receives as a tributary the portionof the equatorial current, perhaps even greater in volumethan the true Gulf Stream, which is deflected northward
North America . he rateof from four to five miles an hour. Its temperature is about8o° F. It is estimated that this great river in the oceancarries 90,000,000,000 tons of water per hour past a givencross-section. Its course is northward along the immedi-ate border of the continental shelf until it arrives oppositethe Carolina coast, and thence northeastward, thus givingit a constantly increasing distance from the land. To thenorth of the Bahamas it receives as a tributary the portionof the equatorial current, perhaps even greater in volumethan the true Gulf Stream, which is deflected northwardby the West India Islands and their associated its course, it is deflected still more towards thenortheast owing to the influence of the earths rotation, atthe same time expanding and losing velocity so as to be-come a surface drift rather than a well-defined the influence of the prevailing westerly winds ofthe north Atlantic, the waters delivered by the Gulf OROGRAPHICAL FEATURES. THE MARGIN OF THE CONTINENT 25 Stream pass the vicinity of the British Islands and in partenter the Greenland Sea. The transfer of the vast amount of warm water carriedby the Gulf Stream far to the north is counterbalanced inpart by a southward-flowing- cold current which emergesfrom Davis Strait, and being joined by another cold currentfrom the eastward of Greenland, continues southward underthe name of the Labrador current, past Newfoundland andNova Scotia to the Massachusetts coast, and is thought toexert an influence on the temperature of the sea even as farsouth as Cape Hatteras. While the Gulf Stream in thenorthern portion of its course curves eastward and departsfrom the American coast, the southward-flowing Labradorcurrent is turned westward and follows close along theborder of the land, and mainly over the continental shelf. The chief effect of the cold current from the north inproximity to the coast of the continent is to bring to theadjacent land a lower mea
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidnorthamerica, bookyear1904
