This is a remarkable current in the ocean, which runs along the coast, at unequal distances, from Cape Florida to the Isle of Sables and the banks of Newfoundland, where it turns off and runs through the Western Islands, thence to the coast of Africa, and along that coast in a southern direction till it arrives at and supplies the place of those waters carried by the constant trade-winds from the coast of Africa towards the west; thus producing a constant circulating current. This stream is about seventy-five miles from the shores of the southern states, and the distance increases as you proceed northward. The breadth of it is about forty or fifty miles, widening towards the north. Its common rapidity is three miles an hour. A north-east wind narrows the stream, renders it more rapid, and drives it nearer the coast. Northwest and west winds produce a contrary effect. The Gulf-stream is supposed to be occasioned by the trade-winds, that are constantly driving the water to the westward, which being compressed in the gulf of Mexico, finds a passage between Florida and the Bahama islands, and runs to the north-east along the American coast.

A chart of this Gulf-stream was published by Dr. Fianklin, in 1768, principally from the information of Captain Folger. This was confirmed by the ingenious experiments of Dr. Blag-den, published in 1781, who found that the water of the gulf-stream was from six to eleven degrees warmer than the water of the sea, through which it runs; which must have been occasioned by its being brought from a hotter climate.