POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



711 



Fylla, Captain Jacobson, which help to ex- 

 plain, why Iceland, lying nearly on the edge 

 of the Arctic Circle, is not frozen like its 

 neighbor Greenland. The first Norwegian 

 Deep-Sea Expedition, under Professor Mohn, 

 brought out the surprising fact that the bank 

 on which the British Islands lie is connected 

 by a submarine ridge, of at most three hun- 

 dred fathoms below the surface of the wa- 

 ter, with the Faroe Islands, and that these 

 islands are similarly connected with the 

 southeast coast of Iceland ; further, it was 

 discovered that over this bottom ridge sep- 

 arating the Atlantic water in its great deeps 

 from the water of the Arctic Sea at least in 

 summer a relatively warm mass of water 

 was moving toward the northeast which 

 fully prevented the cold bottom water of the 

 Arctic Ocean from flowing into the North 

 Atlantic basin. Since, however, the depths 

 of the Atlantic are occupied with a bed of 

 water only a few degrees above the freez- 

 ing-point, the cooling of which can not be 

 ascribed to circumstances of place and posi- 

 tion, but must be caused by an inflow of 

 polar waters, the fact ascertained by the Nor- 

 wegian expedition that no such inflow takes 

 place between Iceland and Europe, in the 

 broadest passage between the two seas, has 

 become of the greatest scientific importance. 

 Attention was accordingly directed to the 

 other passages between the two seas the 

 Denmark Straits between Greenland and Ice- 

 land, and Davis's Straits concerning the 

 features of which not enough was accurately 

 known. The most that had been learned 

 concerning them was the work of a few 

 observers, chiefly Admiral Irminger, who, 

 by comparing the annual reports of voy- 

 ages between Greenland and Iceland, had 

 found that the Atlantic water along the fifty- 

 ninth parallel, between the Orkney Islands 

 and 30 west, over an extent of about nine 

 hundred nautical miles, had tolerably uni- 

 form and relatively high temperature on the 

 surface with a superficial current to the 

 north ; that, further, in consequence of this 

 current, the warm surface-water, at least in 

 summer, reached the south coast of Iceland 

 essentially unchanged in temperature, and 

 was directed thence toward the northwest 

 and north into the Denmark Straits and along 

 the west coast of Iceland ; that, on the other 

 hand, a cold stream filled with thick drift- 



ice flowed from the Polar Sea along the east 

 coast of Greenland through the Denmark 

 Straits to Cape Farewell, and was strong 

 enough to reach over to the northwest coast 

 of Iceland and fill its fiords with ice. As an 

 offset to this, the ice does not, even in win- 

 ter, enter the great bays of the west coast 

 of Iceland, and the fisheries are prosecuted 

 in those waters through the whole year. 

 North of Iceland the stream sets decidedly 

 toward the east, and often brings with it 

 Greenland ice, which blockades the whole 

 coast for a longer or shorter time. Admiral 

 Irminger believes that this stream is a branch 

 of the great East Greenland ice-stream which 

 has rebounded from the northwest coast of 

 Iceland and been deflected to the east. Oth- 

 er investigators have reached conclusions 

 asreeins with these. In order to determine 

 the matters which were in question, the 

 Danish Government, in 1877, provided the 

 Fylla with the necessary apparatus and or- 

 dered Captain Jacobson to take soundings 

 and measurements of temperature. He per- 

 formed his work with much energy, against 

 many difficulties, and discovered that the 

 warm stream which had been mentioned as 

 washing the west coast of Iceland has con- 

 siderable depth, and that it is strong enough 

 at the North Cape to pass around it in its 

 continued progress along the north coast of 

 the island. The meteorological observations 

 in the Island of Grirasey have also shown 

 that this warm stream affects the island in 

 the same way in the winter and considerably 

 moderates its climate. Nevertheless, in se- 

 vere winters, the Greenland ice pushes far 

 down and causes the warm current to be 

 covered with its cold meltings ; the season 

 is protracted, and Iceland suffers a bad year 

 with hardly any summer. 



Stammering. Stammering, according to 

 M. A. Chervin, generally originates in a sud- 

 den nervous shock which the victim of the 

 affection has received in childhood ; some- 

 times it is a habit which has been acquired 

 by the practice of imitating other persons 

 who stammer, or by constant association 

 with stammering members of the family. It 

 takes place whenever the rhythm of respi- 

 ration is interrupted by the effort to speak 

 being made at the wrong stage of breath- 

 ing. Speaking, to be easy and regular, 



