deceased admiral. In answer to his representations to that effect, he was told, that Sir Charles had heard much of his useful services; that he had then no officer near him fit to be entrusted with such a charge; and that he must consequently remain in the San Juan until one could be sent from the fleet off Toulon. Not long afterwards, a commodore’s broad pendant was displayed at the rock, as will be seen by reference to p. 462, of Suppl. Part II. Captain Gourly returned to England in Aug. 1810; and remained on half-pay until Feb. 1812. Some ten or twelve years have now elapsed since the author of this work received the following communication:
“Captain B____ begs to suggest, that the scientific remarks which follow, respecting the Gut of Gibraltar, are worthy of insertion, as they may excite observation from those who are at all inclined to doubt their accuracy.
“‘It has long been a prevailing opinion, amongst seamen, that there is, what they call, an underset of the ocean, beneath the surface of the sea, in the Straits of Gibraltar, which returns to the Atlantic the superabundant waters that are continually pouring into the Mediterranean through that narrow passage. Captain Gourly is of opinion, founded on his own experiments, that there is no return whatever of those waters, further than what the diurnal tides occasion; that the sea, 15 fathoms under the surface, is in a state of perpetual rest; that the rate of the superficial current is increased or lessened according to the degree of evaporation occasioned by the action of the sun and wind on the surface of the immense sea within those narrow Straits; that the Atlantic ocean supplies the constant exhalation; and that this occasions the perpetual influx. Ships’ (says Captain Gourly) ‘may work out of the Gut, with the wind westerly, in moderate weather, if they attend to the tides, keep the Spanish shore on board, anchor at low water, and weigh when it has ceased to flow.’”
In Feb. 1812, Captain Gourly was directed by the Admiralty to raise a quota of men, from those employed in the fisheries on the coast of Scotland, and in the Orkney and Shetland islands. He succeeded in securing the services of above 200 men and boys.
At later periods of the war. Captain Gourly assisted the magistracy of Aberdeenshire, in suppressing two very serious riots; and obtained the well-merited encomiums of the civil
