Effects of Arctic Ice on Climate of Europe. 5 



ture of the sea, produces, sooner or later, perturbations in 

 the temperature of continental atmospheres. Are those 

 causes, which may sensibly modify the temperature of a con- 

 siderable portion of the ocean, placed for ever beyond the 

 foresight of man \ This problem is closely connected with 

 the meteorological question I have undertaken to consider. 

 Let us endeavour to find the solution of it. 



No one can doubt that the ice-fields of the Arctic pole — 

 the immense frozen seas — exert a marked influence on the 

 climates of Europe. In order to appreciate in numbers the 

 importance of this influence, it would be necessary to take 

 into account at once the extent and position of these fields ; 

 but these two elements are so variable that they cannot be 

 brought under any certain rule. 



The eastern coast of Greenland was in former times 

 accessible and well peopled. All of a sudden an impene- 

 trable barrier of ice interposed itself between it and Europe. 

 For many ages Greenland could not be visited. About the 

 year 1815 this ice underwent an extraordinary breaking up, 

 became scattered in a southerly direction, and left the coast 

 free for many degrees of latitude. Who could ever predict 

 that such a dislocation of the fields of ice would take place in 

 such a year rather than in another \ 



The floating ice which ought to act most on our climates, 

 is that known by the English name of icebergs. These moun- 

 tains of ice come from the glaciers, properly so called, of 

 Spitzbergen or the shores of Baffin's Bay. They detach them- 

 selves from the general mass, with a noise like that of thun- 

 der, when the waves have undermined their base, and when 

 the rapid congelation of rain-water in their fissures produces 

 a sufficient expansion to move these huge masses and push 

 them forward. Such causes, and such eff\jcts, will always 

 remain beyond the range of human foresight. 



Those who remember the recommendations which the 

 guides never fail to give upon approaching certain walls of 



