Gulf Coast of the United States

“ No other section of the eastern United States has a similar coast, so serrated, indented, and rugged, as has this shore line of the Gulf of Maine. Here the battering by the forces of nature has resulted in making thousands of safe harbors and havens for the navigator. All along shore are strewn hundreds of islands, a characteristic feature of the region and one noted with wonder by every early explorer. ”

“ At noon this day we found ourselves once more sailing on the Atlantic, and bade farewell to the Gulf of Florida without having heard any news of the dreaded Commodore Mitchell. The narrow and dangerous part of this Gulf is about two hundred miles in length, and fifty in breadth, bordered on one side by the coast of Florida, and on the other, first by Cuba, and then by the Bahama Islands, of which the Manilla reef forms the extremity, and which reef also terminates the Gulf. ”

“ The Gulf Stream, in its rebound and return movement from the shore of Western Texas, a hundred and fifty miles to the southwest of Galveston, after having been driven there by the "trade winds" that come in from the direction of the Coast of Africa—from the southeast, through the channel between Cuba and Yucatan—passes near the island, en route to the channel between Florida and Cuba, and in its passage throws off inshore the sand disturbed and gathered up in its course from the bottom of the Gulf. ”

“ The sea-sand, in its industrious zeal in covering up memorials of man's art and industry, is often curiously assisted by the zoophytes and vegetation of the ocean, as well as guarded in its labor by abnormal monsters of piscine creation. An example of this occurred in an amusing venture after Lafitte's gold. While the Gulf coast of Western Louisiana is fortified, in its immature terre tremblante, by the coral reefs and islets, it has the appearance of having been torn into ragged edges by the hydrostatic pressure of the Gulf Stream. ”

“ It passes through a pleasant and fertile country, and derives much importance from being one of the chief points of communication between the state through which it flows and the Gulf of Mexico. The Pascagoula rises in latitude thirty three degrees, and after travelling for two hundred and fifty miles a tract of pine country, broadens at its mouth into an open bay, on which, at a town of its own name, is a resort for the inhabitants of New Orleans during the sickly months. Most of the rivers of Florida which flow into the gulf have their sources in Georgia. ”

“ Nevertheless, each constitutional definition provides some color of title for each State's claim of a boundary extending at least three leagues from its coastline. The paper claims of each State, therefore, merely add some weight to the overwhelming fact, as Congress saw it, that for more than 100 years all the Gulf States exercised the only possession, dominion and sovereignty over the submerged lands adjacent to their coastlines that was ever exercised at all. ”

“ Gulf Stream in each.—The Gulf Stream of each ocean has its genesis on the west side, and in its course it skirts the coast along; leaving the coast, it strikes off to the eastward in each case, losing velocity and spreading out. Between each of these Gulf Streams and its coasts there is a current of cool water setting to the south. On the outside, or to the east of each stream, and coming up from the tropics, is a broad sheet of warm water; it covers an area of thousands of square miles, and its drift is to the north. ”

“ The coasts are low and sandy, with few good harbors, the best being New Orleans, Pensacola and Havana. Cuba is in the middle of the entrance to the gulf, dividing it into two straits, that of Florida, which connects it with the Atlantic and that of Yucatan, opening into the Caribbean. The largest river flowing into it is the Mississippi. The gulf-stream enters the gulf by the Yucatan Channel, flows round it and passes out by the Florida Strait. The gulf is visited by severe winds called northers. See Gulf-Stream. ”

“ It was only on May 1 that the Nautilus openly resumed its northbound course, after raising the Bahamas at the mouth of Old Bahama Channel. We then went with the current of the sea’s greatest river, which has its own banks, fish, and temperature. I mean the Gulf Stream.
It is indeed a river that runs independently through the middle of the Atlantic, its waters never mixing with the ocean’s waters. It’s a salty river, saltier than the sea surrounding it. Its average depth is 3,000 feet, its average width sixty miles. In certain localities its current moves at a speed of four kilometers per hour. ”

“ The Gulf has a considerable number of islands, most of them near the peninsular coast, and several deep, well-protected bays—those of La Paz and Santa Inés in Lower California, Guaymas in Sonora, Agiobampo, Topolobampo and Altata Salinas in Sinaloa. On the Pacific coast of Lower California are the Ensenada de Todos Santos and the bays of San Quentin, Viscaino and Magdalena. The principal bays on the mainland coast are Olas Atlas, which is the harbour of Mazatlan, San Blas, Banderas, Manzanillo, Acapulco, Salina Cruz and Tonalá. ”

“ Social intercourse and travel are renewed. If difficulties and alienations remain they are sporadic, and melting away. The harshness of the Northern winter climate has turned a stream of travel and occupation to the Gulf States, and particularly to Florida, which is indeed now scarcely a Southern State except in climate. The Atlanta and New Orleans Exhibitions did much to bring people of all sections together socially. With returning financial prosperity all the Northern summer resorts have seen increasing numbers of Southern people seeking health and pleasure. ”

“ By this means the Gulf stream is divided, part turning to the eastward around Cuba and between that island and Florida, and part turning to the westward, north of the banks of Campeachy, and striking Padre Island, an island upon the coast of Texas, about one hundred and forty miles this current strikes, there are very deep soundings, almost up with the land. South of this point, upon the beach, are found mahogany and other tropical drift-wood, brought there from the tropics ”

“ Robert insisted; "it is impossible for us to be in the gulf."
"Then where do you suppose we are!"
"On the coast of Florida, to the south of Tampa. There is no other place within reach, answering the description."
"But how do you know we are not on some island?"
"We may be on an island; but if so, it is still on the Florida coast," Robert replied, "for there are no islands beside these, nearer than the West Indies, and we are surely not on any of them."
Harold shook his head. "I cannot answer your reasoning, for you are a better scholar than I. We may be where you suppose ”

“ After leaving Disaster Inlet, the coast was examined to the eastward, and at the distance of fifteen miles, in an East 5 degrees South direction, we came to a projection that we called Middle Point. The shore between fell back, forming a bight three miles deep, in latitude 17 degrees 44 minutes South, the most southern shore of the Gulf. A growth of mangroves prevented our landing at high-water, and at low, soft mud flat fronted the shore for the distance of a mile and more. ”

“ Supposing the pressure of the waters that are forced into the Caribbean Sea by the trade-winds to be the sole cause of the Gulf Stream, that sea and the Mexican Gulf should have a much higher level than the Atlantic. ”