THE NORTHERN SEA8. 291 



Atlantic polar seas is the diminution of the Gulf Stream, the rising of 

 the bottom of the sea, giving less depth to the bed of the current, tends 

 to lessen it. Formerly the temi)erate water ascended to Spitzbergen, 

 giving life to the cetacea, birds, and quadrupeds of its rugged iieaks, 

 and then descended toward Iceland. This circidation of warm water, 

 I say, being diminished, no longer compensates, as in former times, for 

 a too close proximity to the pole, and the climate of this entire basin 

 has in consequence deteriorated. We may boldly afitirm that the cur- 

 rent passing around North Cape is lessening, audit it were sounded with 

 a thermometer, as did M. De Laroche-Poncie a few years ago, it would 

 be found to lose every ten years in heat, consequently the shores of the 

 White Sea must uudergo a similar decrease of temperature. iSTothing 

 has ever been done seriously and in concert to make us acquainted with 

 our world meteorologically. Should an inhabitant of the moon — a Lu 

 nite, did any such exist — be transported to us here below, wo could tell 

 him the distance from ])oint to point in the moon ; the height of its 

 mountains, ihe form of its craters, the clefts in its soil, the undulation 

 of its plains, the level of its plateaux, the flow of its streams of volcanic 

 lava, and even the effect of the solar heat during its semi-montbly nights 

 and days. But, unhappily, if he wished the inhabitant of the earth — 

 this magician who knew so much about the moon — to enlighten him in 

 regard to physical geography, he would be greatly surprised to hear his 

 learned man respond to almost every question, "1 do not know." Tiie 

 Lunite would form a poor opinion of a people who, while confessing the 

 importance, knows so little of the causes of the meteorological changes 

 controlling the fertility and the j)roductious of the soil, upon which de- 

 l^ends the material subsistence of the human race. 



Le Eeine Hortense records this imx)ortant observation: In 185G the 

 wind in the latitude of 50° or G0° blew constantly from the east, while 

 in the preceding years the contrary was the case. It was the relapse of 

 the current which caused such great inundations in France in 1850, and 

 the return of the wind to its normal direction restored to the seasons of 

 Europe their natural course. The prediction for 1857 which I drew from 

 these tacts was accomplished; but although I boldly announced it in 

 August in au address before a formal session of the live academies, I must 

 confess I am nuich more confident now than I was then in the acuteness 

 of my conjecture. My confreres, the astrologers, may be encouraged to 

 predict at raudom. If they make mistakes their blunders will be over- 

 looked, while at a successful guess the world will cry, "a miracle!" In 

 1840 I foretold a rainy winter, on account of the position of the whales 

 off the bank of Newfoundland. My prediction was verified and highly 

 honored; but when from some other circumstances I made a prophecy 

 concerning the following season, meteorology gave me the lie direct. 

 When to the congratulations upon my sagacity in regard to 1810, I 

 opposed my mistake for 1847, nobody remembered that checkmate. The 

 human mind seems to be such a friend of error, that when it is not indi- 

 vidually deceived, it is enchanted if some one will take the trouble to 

 delude it. 



As to the question whether the regions under discussion will continue 

 to degenerate, or whether an unfavorable period nmy not be followed l>y 

 a favorable one, I answer there is very little hope of the latter; and here 

 are my reasons for such an opinion : In attributing to the rising of the 

 bottom of the Icelandic Sea, the diminution of the warm current by 

 which France and England profit, as they receive a larger share of the 

 temperate water of the Gulf Stream, the question arises whether this 

 risuig will cease or continue. Now, it is to be presumed that if the cause 



