State

The Gull Strea Senator Hailey, in the accompanying article, furnishes some interesting facts and figures relative to this “grandest and most mighty terrestrial phenomenon.” Hi/ JOSIAII H. BAILEY AI'RY logins bis famous chap- tor on the (iulf Stream as fol¬ lows : “There is a river in the ocean, hi the severest droughts it never fails, and in the mightiest Hoods it never over Hows. Its banks and its bottom are of cold water, while its current is of warm water. The (Iulf of Mexico is its fountain and its mouth is in the Arctic Seas. It is the Gulf Stream. There is in the world no other such majestic How of waters. Its current is more rapid than the Mississippi or the Amazon.” The foregoing was written in 1855. Later Rear Admiral Pillsburv of the I'nitcd States Navy made a compre¬ hensive investigation of the Gulf Stream, and when he came to write of his studies, lie described it. ax “The grandest and most mighty terrestrial phenomenon.” Close to Our Coast The (iulf Stream Hows quite near to the coast of North Carolina and is in fact somewhat nearer to our coast than to the roast of any other State except the State of Florida. This makes this great wonder of nature of unusual interest to all North Caro¬ linians. It is readily accessible from at least six of our coast towns. There is some dispute as to the distance from our coast. The best authorities state that from the bight off the coast of Georgia, the distance from the shore to the axis of the Stream is one hun¬ dred mile- and at Cape Hntteras almut thirty-five miles, hut this is to the axis of the Stream and not to the edge. I think those who have gone out from our coast to the Gulf Stream would hear witness that one runs into the first waters of the Gulf Stream off Cape l.ookoiit at about sixteen miles, and off Cape II at terns at about fifteen miles. I do not know the distance to the edge of the Gulf Stream from Southport, hut from the maps. I judge it is from twenty to twenty-five miles. This matter of distance is a variable one, for the reason thut the Gulf Stream tends to swing with the winds and the seasons, perhaps to expand and contract under the force of the wind and also in response to barometic pressure. In the winter it is farther out to sea and in the summer, under the southeast breezes, it comes closer in to us. I have caught Gulf Stream fish (amberjnek) within four miles of Cape Lookout and I have seen Gulf Stream water at the Knuckle Buoy on the point of Cape Lookout Shoals, the buoy lieing about ten miles from the Ca|ie. Off Cape llatteras, one finds the indigo blue Gulf Stream water long before he reaches the lightship, which, I understand, is twenty miles out from Cape llatteras. The hooks say that the axis of the Gulf Stream is thirty-five miles from Cape llatteras. This axis is the line marking the point of greatest velocity in the flow of the Stream, and is not the actual center of the Stream. The 1 Gulf Stream flows more rapidly twen¬ ty to forty miles out from its western border than nearer the land, and it flows generally more rapidly along its western border than along its eastern border. The direction for eight hun¬ dred miles is North from Florida, then Northeast across the Atlantic. The Speed of its Flow The flow of the Gulf Stream, to which Maury referred hv way of com¬ parison with the Mississippi and the Amazon, is the flow in the Straits of Florida, where the Stream is only forty-five miles wide. The flow there is at the rate of about four to five miles an hour. The flow off the North Carolina coast is at the rate usually of from one to two miles an hour. This is due to the fact that as the Stream comes up from the Straits, it broadens out gradually and, therefore, loses its velocity. What are the characteristics of the Gulf Stream? In the first place, the water is much warmer than the water of the sea on either side of it. and the change is abrupt. There is a cold water wall off the North Carolina coast along which the Stream flows. The United States Coast Guard Cutter Tampa. which is two hundred and forty feet long, was placed directly across the cold water wall. The how of the ship was in the cold wall and the stern was in the Stream. The temperature at the bow was thirty-four degrees, while the temperature at the stern was fifty-six degrees, a difference of twenty-two degrees in two hundred and forty feet. The foregoing temperatures were tak¬ en in the winter time. This past May, on the 1 1th day, I saw some experi¬ ments made as to temperature. In the morning, at Cape Lookout, in the hook, the temperature was fifty-eight de¬ grees. At ten o'clock, twenty miles distant, the tein|ierature was eighty- five degrees. The following day we took the temperature at Cape Hattc- ras, in the hay, near the shore, and it was fifty-four degrees at four p.ra.