human
Father, said Lucilla,
gpt
Yes; if all goes well we will be in it by this time to-morrow, was Captain Raymond's reply.
human
It is a body of water worth seeing; separated from the Gulf of Mexico by Yucatan, and from the Atlantic Ocean by the great arch of the Antilles, between Cuba and Trinidad. It forms the turning point in the vast cycle of waters known as the Gulf Stream that wheels round regularly from Southern Africa to Northern Europe. The Caribbean Sea pours its waters into the Gulf of Mexico on the west, which shoots forth on the east the Florida stream with the computed volume of three thousand Mississippis.
gpt
But, papa, where does it get so much water to pour out? asked Elsie.
human
I wonder it didn't get empty long ago.
gpt
Ah, that is prevented by its taking in as well as pouring out. It gathers water from the Atlantic Ocean and the Amazon and Orinoco rivers.
human
Papa, why do they call it by that name--Caribbean Sea?
gpt
It takes its name from the Caribs, the people who were living there when Columbus discovered the islands,
human
The Gulf Stream is very important, isn't it, papa?
gpt
The most important and best known of the great ocean currents, he replied.
human
It flows out of the Gulf of Mexico, between the coast of Florida on one side and the Cuba and Bahama islands and shoals on the other.
gpt
The Stream is very broad, isn't it, papa?
human
About fifty miles in the narrowest portion, and it has a velocity of five miles an hour; pouring along like an immense torrent.
gpt
But where does it run to, papa?
human
First in a northeasterly direction, along the American coast, the current gradually growing wider and less swift, until it reaches the island and banks of Newfoundland; then it sweeps across the Atlantic, and divides into two portions, one turning eastward toward the Azores and coast of Morocco, while the other laves the shores of the British islands and Norway, also the southern borders of Iceland and Spitsbergen, nearly as far east as Nova Zembla.
gpt
But how can they tell where it goes when it mixes in with other waters, papa?
human
Its waters are of a deep indigo blue, while those of the sea are light green, replied her father.
gpt
And as it pours out of the Gulf of Mexico its waters are very warm and full of fish and seaweed in great masses. Its waters are so warm that in mid-winter, off the cold coasts of America between Cape Hatteras and Newfoundland, ships beaten back from their harbors by fierce northwesters until loaded down with ice and in danger of foundering, turn their prows to the east and seek relief and comfort in the Gulf Stream.
human
Don't they have some difficulty in finding it, father?
gpt
A bank of fog rising like a wall, caused by the condensation of warm vapors meeting a colder atmosphere, marks the edge of the Stream, replied the Captain.
human
Also the water suddenly changes from green to blue, the climate from winter to summer, and this change is so sudden that when a ship is crossing the line, a difference of thirty degrees of temperature has been marked between the bow and the stern.
gpt
Papa, I know there used to be pirates in the West Indies; was it there that Kidd committed his crimes?