A. JEJ. Verrill — The Bermuda Islands. 507 



The most marked and remarkable feature in the meteorology of 

 February was the unusual persistence of the northwest winds. 

 According to the meteorological tables kindly furnished to me by 

 Mr. T. G. Gosling, of Hamilton, northwest winds are recorded 

 forty-two times in February, 1901, as contrasted with nineteen times 

 in 1900. They were continuous for four days, from the 5th to the 

 9th, and again six days, from the 13th to the 19th. North and north- 

 east winds were also frequent. These northerly winds were usually 

 accompanied by a fall of six to nine degrees in the temperature of 

 the air, as contrasted with southerly and southwesterly winds. That 

 these persistent northerly winds caused currents of cold northern 

 waters to impinge upon the shores of the Bermudas can scarcely be 

 doubted. Moreover they might easily have caused an upward flow 

 of the cold waters that rest against the submerged slopes of the 

 islands at the depths of forty-five to sixty fathoms and more, for 

 the surface currents, set in motion by the long-continued northerly 

 winds, would inevitably also cause an upward flow of the colder 

 waters of the submerged slopes, as I have many years ago proved to 

 be the case on our own coast. By these combined effects, it is easy 

 to understand how the body of shallow warm waters around the 

 Bermudas could quickly have been cooled sufficiently to kill the more 

 sensitive species of tropical fishes. These would naturally be those 

 that habitually live in shallow water and among the sheltered places 

 near the shores, where the water is usually warmest. 



I was told by elderly and intelligent persons, who have always 

 lived in Bermuda, that no such instance of the death of fishes in 

 large numbers had occurred there within fifty to sixty years, or so 

 far back as they could recollect. Nor can I find any record of any 

 similar event in the early annals of Bermuda. 



Several instances of the death of vast numbers of fishes on the 

 Gulf Coast of the southern United States, and especially on the 

 west coast of Florida, are on record. The actual causes of the fatal- 

 ities in that region are not fully known. In view of the instance 

 recorded above, and the famous case of the death of the tile-fishes, 

 etc., beneath the inner edge of the Gulf Stream, in 1882, it is not 

 improbable that the Florida cases were also due to periods of 

 unusually low temperature, acting upon tropical fishes that were 

 living at or near their extreme northern ranges. Thus a slight fall 

 in the temperature of the water, below their critical point, might 

 have been sufficient to kill them, as in the case at Bermuda and in 

 that of the tile-fish. 



