"Men possessed of far more scientific knowledge than I can boast of, have been puzzled to reply to that question," returned the captain. "The trade-winds, the diurnal motion of the earth, the expansion of water by heat, may all combine to force it along and direct its course; and yet there may be some still more potent cause at work unperceived by us, perhaps undiscoverable.  One thing we know, that it was the will of the Almighty that so it should flow, for a great and beneficent object; and that, to effect it, he has employed some potent and sufficient agent, which, when he thinks fit, he will allow to be revealed to us by the light of that science which he has given as one of his best gifts to man.  There are, as you perceive on the charts, other currents in the vast ocean, all set in movement for the sake of benefiting the inhabitants of the globe.  While the warm Gulf Stream runs up to Spitzbergen, the Hudson's Bay and Arctic currents bring cold water and icebergs towards the south; and a current from the North Atlantic carries its cooling waters round the arid shores of western Africa. There is the great equatorial current from east to west round the world, and numerous other currents in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, the influence of which we shall feel during our voyage; and by knowing where to search for them, and where to avoid them, we can generally make them serviceable to our object.  What I would especially point out to you, my lads, is the beautiful adaptation of all the works of the Creator to the great object of the whole.  The air and water are kept in motion for the benefit of man and all living beings.  Order everywhere reigns supreme. Science shows us that storms are regulated by exact laws, and it is only through our ignorance and blindness that we cannot tell whence they come, and whither they go.  What an admirable system of compensation exists throughout the universe!  Heat, lost by radiation, is quickly restored; water, lifted up by evaporation, has its place supplied by colder currents; mighty rivers discharge their waters in vast quantities into the ocean, and from the far-off regions of the tropics the winds come loaded with dense vapours, which, precipitated at their sources with ample and regular measure, supply all their demands.  I might produce numberless examples.  As an instance, the whole volume of the waters of the Mississippi, rushing out at its mouth, find their way back again in an ever-constant circle to its sources among the far-off lakes of North America.  The Gulf Stream fertilises the earth for the benefit of man, and it likewise carries food to regions frequented by the mighty whales.  Frequently large shoals of sea-nettles, on which the black whale feeds, have been met with, borne onward towards its haunts in the north.  The whale itself, it is believed, could not exist in the warm waters of the stream.  Fish, also, are not generally found in it; and those which inhabit it are of a very inferior flavour.  Instead, therefore, of wandering about the ocean, where they could not be procured by man, they are driven to the shallow waters near the coast, where they can easily be caught.  It is a curious fact, that the warmer the water, the brighter are the colours of the fish which inhabit it; though, as food, they are generally of much less value.  While the Gulf Stream largely benefits the globe, it is at the same time the proximate cause of shipwreck and disaster, from the storms which it creates, in consequence of the irregularity of its temperature, and that of the neighbouring regions, both in air and water.  Perhaps nowhere is a more terrific sea found than when a heavy gale meets the Gulf Stream, when running at its maximum rate.  Many a ship has gone down beneath its waters.  However, I might go on all day telling you curious things about this same Gulf Stream.  One thing more I will mention: people often complain of the dampness of England.  The same cause which so favourably tempers the cold of our country, creates the dampness complained of.  It is not that our soil is more humid, that marshes exist, or that the country is not well drained; but it is that the westerly and north-westerly breezes which prevail, come loaded with the warm vapours ascending from the tropic heated waters of the Gulf Stream."