GULF STREAM, the name applied to the North Atlantic current which issues from the Gulf of Mexico and after being re inforced by a branch of the trade-wind current off Florida, flows north-eastward along the eastern coast of North America (from which it is separated by a narrow strip of cold water—the Cold Wall), to a point east of the Grand Banks off Newfoundland. The initial Gulf Stream is a narrow, deep current, and its greatest velocity is estimated at over 4 m.p.h., but it tends to drag other water along with it. As more water becomes involved its speed decreases to about Jo m. per day and its boundaries become in definite, so that it is recognized by its temperature and colour rather than by its motion. East of the Banks it tends to fuse with the Labrador current and its character changes so consider ably that new names are given to it, e.g., North Atlantic Drift (see ATLANTIC OCEAN.)