ever in a state of restlessness, -even in the midst of a calm.
There are few scenes in nature so terrific and sublime, so well
calculated to impress the mind with wonder and admiration,
as a storm at s e a ; and tremendously awful must such a scene
have appeared to him,
<c Who first to the wild Ocean’s rage
Launch’d the frail bark, and heard the winds engage
Tempestuous.”—
As we approached Cape Finisterre the water became
much smoother, but a t the same time the effects of the well-
known current, which flows incessantly towards the Mediterranean,
began to be sensibly felt—a current which, in the'
strait of Gibraltar, is so strong as. to prevent ships from passing
into the Atlantic with a westerly breeze, however moderate.
This phenomenon has in part been explained by the
hypothesis of the learned and ingenious Doctor Hailey, which
supposes the quantity of water evaporated from the surface
of the Mediterranean to be greater than the quantity thrown
into it by the rains and rivers, and consequently .that, in
order to preserve the level by supplying the deficiency, there
must necessarily be a constant tendency of the Atlantic to
rush into the Mediterranean. I t has since, however, been
supposed, though as far as my knowledge extends not
proved, that an under-current sets as constantly out of
the Mediterranean into the Atlantic. I t is always pleasant
to find ingenious theory corroborated by simple fa cts;
and as the following experiment, communicated to me by
Admiral Patton, applies so directly to the point, and accounts
for the two currents in a manner so satisfactory, I shall transcribe
it without making any comment. The Admiral took
up a small flask of saltwater in the Atlantic Ocean, near Cape
Saint Vincent, which weighed 22oz. 5drs. The same quantity,
in bulk, of salt water taken up by him in the Mediterranean
near Minorca, was found to' be 13 grains heavier.
Two decanters were afterwards filled, one with fresh, the other
with salt water, their specific gravities differing in the above
proportion, and the fresh water tinged with red colouring
matter. The decanters being placed horizontally, and their
necks closely luted, a gradual interchange of their contents
was observed to take place, the fresh and coloured water
making its way through the upper, and the .salt water in a
contrary direction through the lower, part of the necks; being
a just representation of the upper and under currents, which
are supposed to flow in contrary directions through tjie
strait of Gibraltar.
Welcome as the sight of land must always be after a sea-
voyage,- it will be doubly so to the passenger who, .for the
first time, has been buffetted by the billows of the Bay of
Biscay. Yet the appearance of the mountainous island of
Madeira, enveloped, as it usually is, in the obscurity o f a
dense cloud, is far from being inviting. So rarely indeed is
its . gloomy mantle drawn aside, that when Gonsalez Zarco
discovered the island of Porto Santo, though at the distance
only of 40 miles from Madeira, he remained at the former
for a length of time, without even conjecturing that the latter
might be habitable land. He and his people had observed
with marked attention the thick black cloud hovering constantly
over the same spot of the horizon; an appearance
b 2