THE PACIFIC OCEAN ITS CURRENTS Owing to its immense area, and the frequent interven tion of islands and reefs, the currents of the Pacific are more complicated than those of the Atlantic, and are not so well known, the main streams only having been satisfactorily investigated. Being almost land-locked on the north, the currents of this ocean must derive their initial impulse from the Southern Ocean, into which it opens broadly. From the belt of water that circles the globe between lat. 50° and 70° S., a northerly surface-drift sets into the three great oceans, in obedience to the general law of oceanic circulation. The northerly surface-drift of the Antarctic and South Pacific, as it advances into areas having a higher velocity of rotation, is deflected more and more to the eastward, and off the Chilien coast divides into two main streams—one bearing away eastwardly round Cape Horn into the Atlantic, known as the Cape Horn current, while the other curves north, skirting the coasts of Chili and Peru as the Peruvian current. 1 This current is necessarily characterized by a much lower temperature than the ocean in the same latitudes—the differ ence off Lima being as much as 20° F. It then turns to the west, and merges in the southern branch of the great Equa torial current of the Pacific, the northern and southern branches of which hold on due west across the Pacific to wards the East Indian Archipelago, but are separated by the Equatorial Counter-current, flowing in an exactly oppo site direction. Several minor streams seem to press through the numerous streams and channels between the islands of Malaysia into the Indian Ocean, but the main portions of both the North and South Equatorial currents have definite pro longations,—the former to the south as the East Australian current, the latter to the north as the Japan current. Of the East Australian, or, as it is sometimes called, the New South Wales current, it will suffice to note that, after skirt ing the coast of New South Wales, it turns east, and then north-east along the western coast of New Zealand, and finally merges into the general north-easterly drift from the Ant arctic Ocean.
The North Equatorial current of the Pacific pours its waters into the deep basins lying between the Ladrones and the Philippines, and the Pelew Islands and Japan. Theme issues a powerful, warm, and rapid current, the well-known Japan Current, or Kuro-Siwo.' Bending round the eastern coasts of Japan, this current, in lat. 40° N., bifurcates, a minor drift setting north along the Kurile Islands and Kamtchatka into Behring's Sea, and thence through Behring's Strait into the Arctic Ocean. But the main portion sweeps along the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, and British Columbia, and then curves south, finally merging into the northern branch of the Equatorial current, having sent a minor branch along the shores of California and Mexico, forming the periodical Mexican current. A branch of the Japan current also sweeps through the Straits of Corea into the Sea of Japan, and probably another may find its way between the Kurile Islands into the Sea of Okhotsk. In the latter, however, and even as far south as the China Sea, there is a southerly drift of cold water from Behring's Sea. Even this slight sketch of the "Kuro-Siwo," or Japan current, will show that it is almost a counterpart of the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic, and that it forms, in fact, the "Gulf Stream of the Pacific." The deep basin whence it flows is a modified counterpart of the Caribbean Sea and the Mexican Gulf, and the general north easterly direction agrees exactly with that of the Gulf Stream. The influence of the two currents on the coasts towards which they flow is similarly shown in the perfectly open waters, all the year round, of British Columbia and Western Europe. Both currents are similarly flanked on their landward side by a narrow cold current flowing in an exactly opposite direction, and finally sinking below them as under-currents.