APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 311 



having its origin in the heated waters of the G-ulf of Mexico, flows 

 as a river through the oceau northward, encircling England, bathing 

 !!forway, and warming all within its influence. A similar stream in 

 the Pacific, sometimes called the Japanese current, having its origin 

 under the Equator near the Philippines and the Malaccas, amid no 

 common heats, after washing the ancient Empire of Japan sweeps 

 northward until, forming two branches, one moves onward to Ijohring 

 Straits and tlie other bends eastward along the Aleutian Islands, and 

 then southward along the coast of Sitka, Oregon, and California. 

 Geographers have described this " heater," which in the lower latitudes 

 is as hij>h as 81 degrees of Fahrenheit, and even lar to the north it is 

 as high as 50 degrees, A chart now before me in Findlay's " Pacific 

 Ocean Directory" portrays its course as it warms so many islands and 

 such an extent of coast. An oiticer of tlie United States navy. Lieu- 

 tenant Bent, in a jiaper before the Geographical Society of New York, 

 while exhibiting the influence of this current in mitigating the climate 

 of the north-west coast, mentions that vessels on the Asiatic side, 

 becoming unwieldy with accumulations of ice on the hull and rigging, 

 run over to the higher latitude on the American side and "thaw out." 

 But the tepid waters which melt the ice on a vessel must change the 

 atmosphere wherever they flow. 



I hope yo'i will not regard the illustration as too familiar if I remind 

 you that in the economy of a household pipes of hot water are some- 

 times emplo/ed in tempering the atmosphere by heat carried from below 

 to rooms above. In the economy of Nature these thermal currents are 

 only pipes of hot water, modifying the climate of continents by carrying 

 heat from the warm cisterns of the south into the most distant i)laces 

 of the north. So also there are sometimes pipes of hot air, having a 

 similar purpose; and these, too, are found in this region. Ev^ery ocean 

 win:l, from every quarter, as it traverses the stream of heat, takes up 

 the warmth and carries it to the coast, so that the oceanic current is 

 reinforced by an aerial current of constant influeiu-e. 



lut these forces are aided essentially by the configuration of the 

 north-west coast, with a lofty and impenetrable barricade of mountains, 

 bj which its islands and harbours are protected from the cold of the 

 • nirth. Occupying the Aleutian Islands, traversing the Peninsula of 

 Alaska, and running along the margin of the ocean to the latitude of 

 j4o 40'^ this mountain ridge is a climatic division, or, according to a 

 German geographer, a "climatic shed," such as perhaps exists nowhere 

 else in the world. Ilere are Alps, some of them volcanic, with Mount 

 St. Elias higher than Mont Blanc, standing on guard against the Arctic 

 Circle. So it seems even without the aid of science. Here is a dyke 

 between the icy waters of Behring Sea and the Tuilder Southern Ocean. 

 Here is a partition between the treeless northern coast and the wooded 

 coast of the Kenaians and Koloschians. Here is a fence which separates 

 the animal kingdom of this region, leaving on one side the walrus and 

 ice-fox from the Frozen Ocean, and on the other side the humming bird 

 from the tropics. I sim])ly repeat the statements of geography. And 

 now you will not fail to observe how by this configuration the thermal 

 currents of ocean and air are left to exercise all their climatic power. 



There is one other climatic incident here, which is now easily explained. 

 Early navigators record the prevailing moisture. All are enveloped in 

 the fog. Behring names an island Foggy. Another gives the same 

 designation to a cape at the southern extremity of Russian America. 

 Cook records fog. La Perouse speaks of continued rain and fog in the 

 mouth of August. And now visitors, whether for science or business, 



