As discovered by Commander Maury, the true source of the Gulf Stream, its starting point, if you prefer, is located in the Bay of Biscay. There its waters, still weak in temperature and color, begin to form. It goes downsouth, skirts equatorial Africa, warms its waves in the rays of the Torrid Zone, crosses the Atlantic, reachesCape Sao Roque on the coast of Brazil, and forks into two branches, one going to the Caribbean Sea for furthersaturation with heat particles. Then, entrusted with restoring the balance between hot and cold temperatures and with mixing tropical and northern waters, the Gulf Stream begins to play its stabilizing role. Attaining a white heat in the Gulf of Mexico, it heads north up the American coast, advances as far as Newfoundland, swerves away under the thrust of a cold current from the Davis Strait, and resumes its ocean course by going along a great circle of the earth on a rhumb line; it then divides into two arms near the 43rd parallel; one, helpedby the northeast trade winds, returns to the Bay of Biscay and the Azores; the other washes the shores of Ireland and Norway with lukewarm water, goes beyond Spitzbergen, where its temperature falls to 4 degrees centigrade, and fashions the open sea at the pole.

如果你愿意知道的话，海湾暖流的真正源头，也就是说，它的出发点是莫里船长发现的，就在加斯哥尼湾。在那里，尽管水温很低，水的颜色还很淡，但暖流已开始形成了。在热带陽光的照射下，水波逐渐变热，水流开始向南流，然后沿着赤道非洲前进，横穿大西洋，到达巴西海岸的圣—罗克角。在圣—罗克角，水流分成两股，其中一股还不断地从安第列斯海中吸收热量。所以说，海湾暖流做为调节器，有着调节平衡温度的作用，以及掺和热带海水和北极海水的责任。由于在墨西哥湾被晒到白热化，暖流又沿着美洲海岸向北方流动，上溯到纽芬兰岛。此时，海湾暖流和戴维斯海峡的寒流汇合，在寒流的作用下，水流沿着等角线绕了一个大圈，流回大西洋。在北纬43度处，水流又分为两支，其中一支在东北信风的帮助下，流回加斯哥尼湾和亚索尔群岛；另一支给爱尔兰和挪威海岸带去温暖后，便继续上溯到斯匹兹堡。在那里，它的温度下降至4度，融入了北极的自由海中。

It was on this oceanic river that the Nautilus was then navigating.

现在“鹦鹉螺号”船只正沿着这支海洋河流行驶。