KING HENRY THE FOURTH'S SOLILOQUY ON SLEEP.

How many thousand of my poorest subjects

Are at this hour asleep !-O Sleep, O gentle Sleep,

Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,

That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down,

And steep my senses in forgetfulness?

Why rather, Sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,

Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee,

And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber;

Than in the perfumed chambers of the great,

Under the canopies of costly state,

And lull'd with sounds of sweetest melody?

O thou dull god! why liest thou with the vile,
In loathsome beds, and leav'st the kingly couch,
A watch-case, or a common 'larum-bell?

Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast,
Seal up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brains
In cradle of the rude imperious surge,

And in the visitation of the winds,

Who take the ruffian billows by the top,

Curling their monstrous heads, and hanging them
With deaf'ning clamours in the slippery clouds,
That, with the hurly, death itself awakes?—
Canst thou, partial Sleep, give thy repose
To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude;
And, in the calmest and most stillest night,
With all appliances and means to boot,

Deny it to a king? Then, happy low, lie down!
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

Shakspere.

LESSON LXV.

THE GULF STREAM.

1. Everybody, who has observed the stream rushing through a mill-dam into a wide basin of water, must have noticed that a great part of the water is in constant circulation. If a chip of wood is thrown into the current it is carried away, at first very rapidly, but afterwards floats to the edge of the stream, takes a circuit, and is probably brought back nearly to the place where it was first thrown in. This revolving motion of the water is occasioned thus: The water next to that in the stream, is carried along with it; the removal of this, causes

a hollow, into which the water next to it runs; and this kind of motion is thus propagated throughout all the mill-pool.

2. Now this represents, on a small scale, a great natural phenomenon, called the Gulf Stream, because it was first observed in the Gulf of Mexico, in the Atlantic Ocean. That particular current, however, is only part of an extensive circulation of all the waters in the great western basin.

3. To understand this, it must be observed that the waters of the open ocean, between the tropics, have a constant motion from east to west. This is very clearly seen at the Cape of Good Hope, where the waters of the Indian Ocean unite with the Atlantic. There is a constant current setting from east to west, so that ships require a strong westerly wind to stem it; and many fatal accidents have happened by ships being driven upon the coast of Africa, when they thought themselves many leagues to the east of it, from not allowing for the westerly current. The motion of the waters in the free ocean is at the rate of ten miles in the twenty-four hours, or about a quarter as fast, upon an average, as the principal rivers of Europe run.

4. If you examine a physical map of the Atlantic, it will be seen that this great stream of water, coming from the ocean round the south of the Cape of Good Hope, runs in a northwesterly direction, until it comes upon the great dam formed by the coast of South America. The waters of the Atlantic, between the tropics, are

themselves impelled by the same causes which create this current, and in the same direction, so that a vast body of water, arising from the united action of those currents, is heaped up against the coast of South America.

5. The strength of this current falls upon that part of Brazil which is to the north of the River Parabiba, and by the direction of the coast is sent on, in nearly a north-westerly direction, past the mouths of the great Rivers Amazon and Orinoco, to where the waters of the current enter the Caribbean Sea. The island of Trinidad is situated just in the centre of the stream, and the waters pour between that island and the mainland with great rapidity, and then form a westerly current along the whole northern coast of South America.

6. The effect of this current is seen in the distribution of land and water in that part of the globe. The islands of the West Indies are probably those parts of a formerly connected continent, which had strength enough to resist the continual force of the waves.

7. Along the Isthmus of Panama the current of the western ocean is forced in a northerly direction until it meets with the turbid waves of the Mississippi. It now proceeds to the southern extremity of Florida, so that its course is turned nearly due east. Here it passes with great rapidity into the Strait of Bahama, at the rate of eighty miles in twenty-four hours, or double the average rapidity of European rivers, and sometimes even with a velocity of five miles an hour, having now taken a nearly north-easterly direction.

8. The breadth of the stream gradually increases after it leaves the Straits of Bahama. Between Florida and the bank of Bahama the breadth is fifteen leagues. In latitude 28° 30' N., the breadth is seventeen leagues. In latitude 41° 25′ N., longitude 67° W., it is eighty leagues wide; and having now met with a great Arctic current it is turned towards the east, at the southern extremity of the bank of Newfoundland.

9. The great current still continues onward to the east and south-east to the Azores. From the Azores the current tends rather in a south-easterly direction, towards the Straits of Gibraltar, the Madeiras, and the Canaries.

10. Thus, between the parallels of 11° and 44° N. latitude, the waters of the Atlantic move in a perpetual round, as regularly as a mill-sluice; the waste being supplied by a constant influx of water from the Indian seas round the Cape of Good Hope.