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.