Ocean Currents

Abstract

IT is to be regretted that the correspondents of NATURE, who for some weeks past have been writing on the subject of Ocean Currents, should ignore the consideration that it is primarily a question of geographical fact, and that any theory which runs counter to that needs no more elaborate confutation than a bare statement of the fact, supported, if necessary, by authoritative evidence. Thus, then, when we find the effect of the earth's rotation put forward, in the way it has lately been, by Mr. Ferrel and Prof. Everett, it is quite needless to examine the calculations which have been adduced; it is sufficient to say that the conclusions arrived at are contrary to geographical fact; that currents do not by any means universally turn to the right in the northern, or to the left in the southern hemisphere;—to name a few amongst many, the Gulf Stream turning to the left round Cape Hatteras, and again towards the coast of Ireland, Rennell's current, the Agulhas current, the Cape Horn current as it turns south near Chiloe, the current through Behring's Strait, are cases in point, currents turning in a manner exactly opposite to that deduced from the theory.