prevalent Disorders, S^-c, 'with Volcanic Emanations, 627 



That the American continent, to a certain extent, may be 

 affected by the ice, when this has received a lodgement on her 

 shores, no one can dispute ; and that a momentary passing 

 chill may be produced, in the direction of the prevalent wind, 

 by ice crossing that line, even in England, I would not deny; 

 but this is the extent of the influence to whicli I would limit it. 

 The inundations, hurricanes, and tempests of 1 8 16, and even the 

 accumulation of snow partially, in all probability, owed their 

 origin to electrical agents, set in motion by the cause which 

 filled the Atlantic with icebergs. Westerly and southerly 

 gales, it seems, have blown on the other side of the floating 

 ice ; and, therefore, unless the American continent has been 

 much colder than the ice, these winds cannot be caused by it. 

 But it so happens, that the heat and drought experienced in 

 Europe have been felt also in America, even in Canada, 

 although the coasts of Canada and Newfoundland have been 

 dreadfully chilled by a transported winter. It is said, that 

 " in Virginia scarcely a night" occurred, in 1816, without 

 frost, even in summer * ; in New Orleans, the ice was 2 in. 

 thick, &c. &c. {Quarterly Review, xviii. 447.) Now, can any 

 man believe that frost in New Orleans is caused by ice melting 

 in the latitude of 40° ?f We have seen that the south of 



* In Virginia, the south-west wind prevails in the summer. {Jefferson.) 

 \ The latitude of New Orleans is 30° n., and its longitude is 90° W w., 

 and it is situated in the Gulf of Mexico, from which a warm current sets 

 northwards, between the Bahamas and Florida, at the rate of four miles 

 per hour, " which is not reduced to two miles till the stream has proceeded 

 a distance of 1800 miles in the direction of Newfoundland, when it meets 

 with a current setting to the southward from Baffin's Bay, and is thereby 

 deflected to the east." (Lyell's GeoL^ i. 258.) " It retains, in the pa- 

 rallel of 38°, nearly 1000 miles from the above straits, a temperature of 10" 

 Fahr. warmer than the air." (/rf.,p. 108.) Now, it is not pretended that 

 the ice has come lower than 40°; and, even calculating the distance be- 

 tween 40° and 30°, in the same meridian, at about half distance between 

 England and the spot where it was seen on October 30. 1833, still the 

 difference of climate and the breadth of difference in longitude must upset 

 the calculation ; for we are told by a recent writer, that, even at Christmas, 

 the heat at New Orleans is so great, that oranges, peas, and red pepper 

 grow there in the open air. (Mrs. Trollope's Domestic Mariners of the 

 Americans y i. 9.) " The extreme limits of the icebergs in the northern 

 hemisphere appears to be the Azores," or 42° e. (Lyell, Geol.,i. Hi.) 

 Moreover, Mr. Lyell says, on undoubted authority, that the Gulf stream 

 " maintains an open sea free from ice in the meridian of East Greenland 

 and Spitzbergen." (i. 108.) The lowest latitude registered by the Quar- 

 terly Reviewer (xviii. 446.) is 41° 51', in long. 50° 53' w., which is more 

 than 1800 miles from the meridian of New Orleans, and consequently the 

 iceberg in question was more than 2000 miles from New Orleans; the 

 Gulf stream, the atmosphere above, and the Carib Sea intervening. The 

 spot is scarcely more than 120 miles from that where the Emulous met 

 with packed ice on Feb. 26. 1833 ; so that this memorandum will serve 

 for both cases. Major Rennel estimates the distance between the Gulf of 



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