Studies of nature (Volume 1).

  • Saint-Pierre, Bernardin de, 1737-1814. Etudes de la nature. English
Date:
1808
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Studies of nature (Volume 1). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    T]ie bi'anch which produces them advances afterward to the South, dou- bles the Cape of Good-Hope, takes it's course eastward, forms in the Indian Ocean the westerly monsoon ; and having encompassed the Globe even to the South-Sea, it proceeds to Cape Horn, re-ascends along the coast of Brasil, and there produces a current which terminates at Cape St. Augustin, and is opposed to the principal Current which descends from the North. The other branch of the Current, which in Summer flows from our Pole on the opposite side of our Hemisphere, issues through the passage called the North-Strait, situated between the most easterly extremity of Asia and the most westerly of America. It descends into the South-Sea where it is re-united to the first branch, which then foi*ms, as has been said, the wes- terly monsoon of that Sea. Besides this branch which issues by the North- Strait, receives much less of the icy effusions than that of the Atlantic Ocean j because the deep bays which arc at tlie sources of that Ocean, and the con- tours of these same sources, which suiTound the Pole spirally, receive, as we have seen, the greatest part of the icy effusions of the North Pole, and pour them into the Atlantic Ocean The Ocean accordingly flows twice a year round the Globe, in opposite spiral directions, taking it's departure alternately from each Pole, and de- scribes on the Earth, if I may venture to say so, the same course which the Sun does in the Heavens. This Theory, I confidently affirm, is so luminous, tliat by means of it ?. multitude of difficulties may be resolved, which involve m much obscurity the journals of our Navigators. Froger, for example, says, that in Brasil the Currents come in conformity to the direction of the Sun; that is, they run northward when he is in the northern signs of the Zodiac, and southward when he is in the southern signs. It is impossible assuredly to explain thi!< versatile effect from the pressure or the attraction of the Sun and of the Moon between tlie Tropics, as these two Luminaries never transcend their bounds, and always proceed in one direction, from East to West: but here is the solution. When this Current of Brasil runs to the South in our Win' ter, it is the general counter-cnrrent of the South Pole, which is then setting in to the North ; and when this Brasilian Current runs to the North in our S-ummer, it is tlie extremity of this same general Current which returns by Cape Horn. The same thing docs not take place respecting the Current in the Gulf of Guinea which is opposite, and which runs always to the East, though it be in precisely the same situation, for in our Winter this Current in the Gulf of Guinea is the extremity of the general Current of the South Pole, which re- turns by the Cape of Good-Hope, and which at that season sets in to the North along tlie coasts of Africa, from the thirtieth degree of South Latitude, as far as to the fourth degree of the same Latitude, according to the testimony of Dumpier. But this extremity of the general Current which sets in to the NoriJi, and which then takes it's departure from the fourth degree South ti; join the general Current, does not enter into the Gulf of Guinea, because of the prodigious retreat of that (Julf; so that in this part only the Sea flows always to the East, conformably to the observation of all \frican Navi- gators. Vol. I.