626 Supposed Connection of Meteoric Phenomena, 



state of the earth in 1827, 1829*, 1833, 1834-, tallies also 

 with the recent descent of the ice from the poles. To what, 

 then, can we attribute the " breaking up " and " floating 

 away" of the ice since 1816, but to the one universal agent, 

 the influence of an increased terrestrial heat? The year 

 1833 parallels, as we have seen, in all respects, that of 1818; 

 and both periods are parallels of that of 1 34-8, when a greater 

 disruption of ice took place, and, in consequence, the coast, 

 now partially free, was encumbered. The cause which has 

 operated recently, doubtless operated in 1348; and the 

 blocking up was, there is every reason to believe, occasioned 

 by the same agency as the breaking up. It was accident, 

 perhaps, which first grounded the foundation ice of the " ram- 

 part;" and the same accident may occur again. There is no 

 reason to believe that either cold or mildness are of any fixed 

 duration in the polar seas; and there is every reason to 

 believe that the changes of climate there depend, in great 

 measure, on the developement or inactivity of subaqueous and 

 subterranean heat. 



I will allow that, in 1348, the blocking up of lower lati- 

 tudes might have chilled Europe to an immense extent ; but 

 there is no ground for supposing that the more recent alter- 

 ations in the ice in the Greenland seas, or its frequent melt- 

 ing in the Atlantic, can produce such an influence on the 

 climate of England as has been asserted. If the position of 

 the Quarterly Reviewer be a just one, it could have stood the 

 test I have put it to in the foregoing remarks; and, therefore, 

 since the year 1833 has been distinguished by an intensity 

 and duration of southerly and westerly winds, not paralleled 

 for twenty-four years : and since those gales have been accom- 

 panied with a warmth not paralleled for twice that length 

 of time ; since, also, the present year has been hotter than 

 perhaps ever known, and the seasons at least a month earlier 

 than remembered; and since, during both years, ice has been 

 floating into low latitudes, we ought not to attribute the gales 

 in question to the ice, which ought to produce " a raw, moist, 

 chilly atmosphere," but to a cause which, despite the ice, has 

 set the air in extraordinary motion, and heated the earth 

 throughout. What that cause is, I have already surmised. 



* In 1829, Kirauea, in the South Sea, was in eruption. (Steivarf.) In 

 1831, there was an earthquake in Owhyhee : the sea is said to have risen 

 in a pyramid, four or five miles from shore, " higher than the bread-fruit 

 trees, which are GO ft. or 70 ft. high. (Goodrich, in SilHman's Anier. Journ., 

 XXV. 199.) In 1832, Jan. 12., Mouna Kea, in Oahu, erupted with violent 

 earthquakes; and on June 20., Mouna Loa broke out for three weeks: 

 the crater was filled up 50 ft. higher than the black ledge in Lord Byron's 

 account. (I(t.) 



