Vagaries of the Gulf Stream

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2, 11 January 1906, Page 29

Vagaries of the Gulf Stream

The exceptional resistance encountered by transAtlantic steamers on their journeys to America has aroused not a little interest among oceanographers. So great indeed has been some of the resistance offered that some of the vessels fell short of their usual daily runs by 25 to 40 miles when within two days of the United States. Along the Southern Atlantic coast the velocity of the Gulf Stream fluctuates between one and a half and two knots an hour. As it travels northwards the speed gradually reduces until, when the Stream reaches Nova Scotia, it is so far widened and grown so shallow that is is almost imperceptible. It some-times happens, however, that the speed " does,* not diminish, and that it even increases as the current changes its course. At times the north-western limits of the Gulf Stream approach New England and Nova Scotia more closely than at others. Naturally, such marked changes are not without their effect on climate. A change is noted in the movement of the air over the ocean. Indeed, it is not improbable that the change in the direction of air motion is the direct cause of- the change in the Gulf Stream's motion.