GULF STREAM  ,' the name properly applied to the stream current which issues from the Gulf of

Mexico and flows north-eastward, following the eastern coast of North America, and separated from it by a narrow strip of cold water (the Cold Wall), to a point east of the Grand Banks off Newfoundland . The Gulf Stream is a narrow, deep current, and its velocity is estimated at about 8o m. a day .. It is joined by, and often indistinguishable from, a large body of water which comes from outside the West Indies and follows the same course . The term was formerly applied to the drift current which carries the mixed waters of the Gulf Stream and the Labrador current eastwards across the Atlantic . This is now usually known as the " Gulf Stream drift," although the name is not altogether appropriate . See ATLANTIC .