CH. ll] THE OCEANOGRAPHY OF THE NORTH-WESTERN OCEAN 53 



the incidence of the seasons is ascribed to the fact that a great 

 amount of heat is stored up in the water accumulated in the basins 

 of the seas mentioned. 



If then, as is undoubtedly the case, the climate of the maritime 

 countries of Northern Europe is conditioned by the carriage of 

 heat in the water coming from the Atlantic Ocean we should 

 expect to find that climatic perturbations would result from 

 variations in the strength of the European Stream. The delay 

 in the time of culmination of the current must mean the delay in 

 the winter cooling of the sea and consequently to some extent in 

 the cooling of the land. The " odd and even years " are familiar 

 to meteorologists. The odd years have been, as a rule, colder in 

 the winter than the even ones. We have seen that the tempera- 

 ture of the sea is lower in the winter during the odd years than 

 during the even ones, and variations in the temperature of the sea 

 are analogous with those on the land. Other climatic phenomena, 

 into a consideration of which we have not space to enter, are 

 connected with the variations in the strength of the European 

 Stream. The unusual accumulation of abnormally warm water 

 in the sea round Iceland and off the coast of Norway and Spitz- 

 bergen delays the southern encroachment of ice floes, and serves 

 as the breeding ground for cyclonic disturbances by producing 

 abnormal conditions of atmospheric pressure. Obviously the 

 temperature of the wind varies according as it blows over a 

 warm or cold sea surface. This is well illustrated by Knudsen 

 in a discussion of the influence of the East Icelandic polar stream 

 on the climatic changes in the Faeroe and Shetland Isles and in 

 the north of Scotland^. 



The main facts of the circulation of water in the North Atlantic 

 basin are those elucidated by the hydrographic work of Pettersson 

 and Cleve, and this statement is based on the published work of 

 these investigators. Obviously the data are susceptible of more 

 than one explanation, and since the hydrographic investigation of 

 the north-western ocean is still proceeding it is not unlikely that 

 Pettersson's theory, which I have followed in this place, may 

 receive some modification in the future. 



^ Rapports et Proces-Verbaux, Vol. lu. 1905. 



