What is the Gulf Stream?

It is a warm current in the Atlantic Ocean.


What is its origin?

It may be considered as beginning on the west coast of Africa, within
the region of the trade winds. These cause a westward flow, known as
the equatorial current. On reaching the coast of Brazil, the greater
portion of this current bends northward, carrying with it the waters
of the Amazon and Orinoco, and passes through the Caribbean Sea into
the Gulf of Mexico. Here it is further heated, and rushes out through
the only outlet, the Straits of Florida.


Describe its course.

Deep and narrow, it runs by Florida with a velocity varying from two
to five miles an hour, and pressed by the cold current between it and
the shore, flows parallel to the coast as far as Cape Hatteras.
Meeting shoals near this point, the banks of sand extending as far as
Newfoundland, it there turns abruptly to the east, and with diminished
speed and increased width, rolls onward towards the coast of Europe.
Before long it divides into two great branches--the northern and
southern. The former extends as far as Spitzbergen; the latter,
sweeping along by the Madeira and Canary Islands, returns to the
equator, completing the circuit.