upon its waters. The truth is, the entire easterly trend of the Gulf Stream is due to the rasping, dragging influence of the anti-trades and not to the mere rotatory motion of the globe, which, as Mr. Ferrell, of Harvard University, and others, have shown, ought to carry it, after leaving Newfoundland, and if strong enough would carry it, toward the S. E. and S. back to the Tropics. Thus, we see that as long as the warm surfacewater was in the Tropics it was propelled westward, according to the famous remark of Columbus, entered in the diary of his third voyage to the New World, near Teneriffe: 'I regard it as proved that the waters of the sea move from east to west as do the heavens (con los cielos).' But once removed from the intra tropical regions, the S. W. anti-Trades come into play and bear them off from west to east or toward Western Europe. So that even without the circulation due to the specific gravity differences, the mighty and nearly perennial force of the winds in the extra-tropical latitudes would propel, and does propel, the current to the vicinity of Ireland and Norway.

6

We need not dwell upon the existence of these S. W. winds. Every transatlantic voyager in winter has felt, on the passage from Liverpool to New York, their tremendous power as 'head winds.' The most powerful Cunard steamers quiver and become almost motionless when facing them; only this winter the Algeria and the Concordia (of another line) were, respectively, twenty and thirty-eight days in crossing the Atlantic. Glaish encountered them (as the Aerial Gulf Stream') in the lofty regions of aeronautic navigation over Great Britain, moving with the velocity of seventy or eighty miles per hour. And the late Austrian expedition into the Arctic Ocean record the fact that on their return south to Nova Zembla and Norway, they had to battle against continuous heavy gales from the S. W.' 'The temperature of the water in 77 N. on the 5th of September,' they say, 'was 37.6° F., and in 761° N. on September 8th, in sight of Cape Nassau, even 40.1° F.' (Showing the presence of the Gulf Stream.) They add the remarkable observation: "In the night, from the 12th to the 13th of September, we were in the

region in which the equatorial and polar air currents come in conflict The barometer fell two inches, and the sea became so rough, the helmsman lost control of the rudder.'

Strange as it may appear that the Gulf Stream is projected into the Polar Basin, it is conclusively demonstrated by the well-known continual emergence thence of enormous icy and ice-bearing currents, whose places must be supplied by inflowing currents from the south. All surprise and skepticism vanish when we combine with such phenomena the well-attested fact that streams of air and water, of different density and chemical constitution, display a wonderful reluctance to mix and commingle with each other- a characteristic so marked that Coleridge used wittily to say that 'in the city of Cologne he could distinctly count more than a hundred separate smells.'

We have now demonstrated the extension of the great current of the Atlantic from the Mexican Gulf to the north cape of Europe, where, in the rudest and most boreal winter, it keeps open the Norwegian harbor of Hammerfest. It was in the seas northward, and between Nova Zembla and Spitzbergen, that the brave old sailor, William Barents, the most famous navigator of the seventeenth century, persisted, to the day of his death, in assigning to his fellow explorers the best route for finding an open water avenue to the Pole. It was in the same seas that Hendrick Hudson, in 1607, found and recorded numerous evidences of a 'streame running to the northeast!' Here, too, hydrographic science had taught Silas Bent to fix the thermal paths to the Pole, more than fifteen years ago. Here the late Swedish expedition reported incontestable signs in the drift-wood, cork, raft-wood, of the Lofoden Isles and West Indian legumes' of the Gulf Stream movement. Here also, a year ago last September, the Austrian explorers unconsciously verified the Bent hypothesis in the most perfect and remarkable manner, and established the fact so long in dispute, that the Gulf Stream is not a myth, but is, indeed, the Great Artery of the Ocean. The Austrian report of Weyprecht and Payer, last year, makes the following disclosure: The ice between the 28th and 36th degrees of longi

tude, east of Spitzbergen, proved to be looser and thinner than, perhaps, in any other part of the Arctic Ocean. Flakes were nowhere to be seen, and the horizon appeared as a straight and unbroken line. One could have believed himself to be on a fresh water lake instead of the Arctic Ocean.❤ A strong steamer could have taken a straight course through the ice. At midnight (Sept. 1) we attained, within loose drift ice, our highest latitude, 78° 48' 8" N. on the meridian of 42° 30′ E.' (See Report of Hydrographic Office, by Commodore Wyman, with translation of the Austrian report.) These explorers added: A thick fog, with strong head winds, prevented us from penetrating further north; the id would not have been an obstacle.' And again, 'there was not a piece of ice to be seen on our course below the 78th parallel of latitude up to the coast of Nova Zembla.' These facts, they say, 'prove the Nova Zembla sea to be the most favorable basis for attempts to reach the Pole.' Their conclusion has been fortified by every report that, up to this hour, has reached Europe or America, and this conclusion, our readers will remember, was first announced by Captain Bent in 1856, sixteen years ago, in his celebrated theory of The Thermometric Gateways to the Pole.'

Whatever weight we may attach to Polar exploration, it must be allowed on all hands, that these observations are of incalculable importance in a scientific point of view, as showing an arterial circulation of the sea through the channels of its Gulf Streams and Kuro Siwos and its submarine, almost glacial, currents Mutatis mutandis. The reasoning applied to the northern hemisphere holds equally good for the southern hemisphere.

ART. VI-Memoir of Chief Justice Taney. By Samuel Tyler, LL. D. Baltimore: John Murphy & Co.

We do not recollect ever having begun a volume with more interest, or read one with less, than we did the life of the late Chief Justice, by Samuel Tyler, LL. D., of the Man and Bar.' Our anxiety to take up the book was only equalled by our desire to lay it down. We supposed that we would be either instructed or amused, and we were neither. The material was abundant to have made a most interesting work for all classes of readers. The lawyer, the statesman, the politician, the lover of stories of domestic life, and the gossip, might each have been furnished with food for entertainment. With a bushel of private letters before him, he publishes one to illustrate Judge Taney's domestic life. Of all descriptions of Maryland society, in the olden time, the book is equally barren. Yet the position in which Judge Taney was born, and in which he lived, was one peculiarly suggestive of such a theme. No State has been so prolific of great lawyers as Maryland; and she produced them in the greatest profusion during the life of the Chief Justice. He was the contemporary of Mar tin, and Pinkney, and Wirt, and Harper, and the Johnsons, and Nelson, and Dorsey, and Glenn, and others scarce less distinguished. Bar anecdotes, illustrating the characters of these remarkable men, lay around the author in prodigal abundance, yet he gathered none. The dissensions in General Jackson's first Cabinet, which began with its beginning and ended in its dissolution within a year of its formation, would of themselves have furnished a wide field for investigation to the philosophic Macauley, or garrulous, gossiping, scandal-loving old Samuel Pepys. Especially should these have attracted the attention of the biographer of Judge Taney, as they were the occasion of his leaving, for a time, the quiet pursuit of his profession, and embarking on the stormy sea of politics. The event was no less remarkable in its character

than important in its consequences. It was as remarkable for the causes which were alleged to have produced it, as for those which were not, but which were known to be the true ones. Mr. Van Buren, for instance, assigned for cause, that circumstances beyond his control placed him before the public as a candidate for the succession, and that he was thus forced to disfranchise himself or resign. This was the 11th of April, 1831, General Jackson being himself then a candidate for reëlection in 1832, a the election of 1836 having been thought of by no human being, except, possibly, Mr. Van Buren himself. He had at that time been nominated by no legislative convention, caucus, or even newspaper; and from e days of Washington

no one had been elected President who had not been in the Cabinet of his predecessor, except General Jackson. Why his remaining Secretary of State, therefore, disqualified or disfranchised him for the office of President, and how he became a candidate without his own consent, were then mysteries, and have remained so ever since. 'Some men are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.' Mr. Van Buren, by his own account, was about to enjoy the good fortune of Maloolio, and had only determined not to thrust greatness from him. A few days before this, Major Eaton had withdrawn from the Cabinet without assigning any reason. Simultaneously with these resignations, the Secretary of the Treasury, Samuel D. Ingham, the Secretary of the Navy, John Branch, and the Attorney-General, John McPherson Berrien, were requested to resign, no reason being given. They complied with the request, and William F. Barry, the Postmaster-General, alone remained, and for a time constituted the entire Cabinet. The ground stated for retaining Major Barry was considered by some quite as remarkable as that given for dismissing the other three-namely, that it was deemed improper for him to retire while the charge made in the Senate, just before the adjournment, of his having be haved corruptly in his office remained neither withdrawn, nor explained, nor investigated. In accepting the resignations of Messrs. Ingham, Branch, and Berrien, General Jackson expressed entire satisfaction with their conduct, and gave as a