56 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



nel and far out into the Atlantic. It was shown that there 

 are pits or gullies excavated in the bottom in both the En- 

 glish and Irish channels, and that these depressions generally 

 have their major axes conformable in direction with the set 

 of the stream tide. In conclusion, Mr. Reade expresses his 

 conviction that the diurnal and semidiurnal motion of the 

 tides, acting down to the profoundest depths of the ocean, 

 accounts for the preponderance of life in it over that exhibit- 

 ed by the fauna of the Mediterranean. 12 A, IX., 316. 



PHYSICAL CONDITION OF THE ARCTIC SEAS. 



Captain Wells, in a paper presented to the Royal Society 

 upon the physical condition of the arctic seas near Spitzber- 

 gen, mentions a very curious fact namely, that the tempera- 

 ture sometimes increases considerably at great depths. Thus 

 on the 12th of July, when in latitude 80 17' north, the ves- 

 sel being fixed in the ice, the temperature actually increased 

 to -f-64 at a depth of 600 fathoms, proving, in his opinion, 

 the southward flow of a vast body of warm water. This could 

 not have been derived from the Gulf Stream, because nowhere 

 as hio-h as latitude 50 or 60 does it have so high a tera- 

 perature at the surface. Even if the whole of the water of 

 the Gulf Stream were spread over the water of the north, its 

 depth would not exceed ten fathoms ; whereas warm water 

 of 42 Fahr. occurs to the depth of 400 fathoms, and north of 

 Spitzbergen it is found as high as 64 Fahr. at 600 fathoms. 



A northward drift of the Atlantic from warm localities will 

 not explain this fact, since the soundings obtained by Car- 

 penter and others gave temperatures much below 64. Again, 

 the lower w r aters flow south, and not north. Volcanic ac- 

 tion, or a warm mineral spring, might be given as the cause; 

 but there is no evidence of this, and the true explanation 

 is still a matter of uncertainty. 5 A, July, 1873, 326. 



OCEAN TEMPERATURES IN THE SOUTH ATLANTIC. 



Captain Nares, of the Challenger, makes an interesting and 

 somewhat unexpected deduction from the observations made 

 by him during the cruise of his vessel namely, that the cold 

 water at the bottom of the Atlantic, as far north as the Azores 

 and the Bay of Biscay, equally with that at the equator, is 

 derived from an antarctic and not from an arctic source, 



