Phil. Trans. abridged, Vol. III. p. 540.
which seeds are natives of the West Indies, and seem to be brought
thither by the gulf-stream described below. One of these is called, by
Sir H. Sloane, Phaseolus maximus perennis, which is often also thrown
on the coast of Kerry in Ireland; another is called, in Jamaica,
Horse-eye-bean; and a third is called Niker in Jamaica. He adds, that
the Lenticula marina, or Sargosso, grows on the rocks about Jamaica, is
carried by the winds and current towards the coast of Florida, and thence
into the North-American ocean, where it lies very thick on the surface of
the sea.

Thus a rapid current passes from the gulf of Florida to the N.E.
along the coast of North-America, known to seamen by the name of the
GULF-STREAM. A chart of this was published by Dr. Francklin in 1768, from
the information principally of Capt. Folger. This was confirmed by the
ingenious experiments of Dr. Blagden, 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 ran; which must have been
occasioned by its being brought from a hotter climate. He ascribes the
origin of this current to the power of the trade-winds, which, blowing
always in the same direction, carry the waters of the Atlantic ocean to
the westward, till they are stopped by the opposing continent on the west
of the Gulf of Mexico, and are thus accumulated there, and run down the
Gulf of Florida. Philos. Trans. V. 71, p. 335. Governor Pownal has given
an elegant map of this Gulf-stream, tracing it from the Gulf of Florida
northward as far as Cape Sable in Nova Scotia, and then across the
Atlantic ocean to the coast of Africa between the Canary-islands and
Senegal, increasing in breadth, as it runs, till it occupies five or six
degrees of latitude. The Governor likewise ascribes this current to the
force of the trade-winds _protruding_ the waters westward, till they are
opposed by the continent, and accumulated in the Gulf of Mexico. He very
ingeniously observes, that a great eddy must be produced in the Atlantic
ocean between this Gulf-stream and the westerly current protruded by the
tropical winds, and in this eddy are found the immense fields of floating
vegetables, called Saragosa weeds, and Gulf-weeds, and some light woods,
which circulate in these vast eddies, or are occasionally driven out of
them by the winds. Hydraulic and Nautical Observations by Governor