12 



of heat received from sun in temperate regions is to amount of heat received from 

 sun in tropical reg^ions as 9'08 is to 12, therefore the Gulf Stream conveys a heat 

 equal to the heat from the sun in temperate regions over 2,062,960 square miles, 

 and as the area of the Atlantic, north of the Straits of Florida, is 8,500,000 square 

 miles, it follows that the heat carried by the Gulf Stream into the Atlantic is to 

 the heat received from the sun over the whole area as 1 to 4, or very nearly. It 

 follows, therefore, that of all the heat possessed by the Northern Atlantic, one- 

 fifth is due to the heat of the Gulf Stream. Now, what is the measure of the heat 

 of the waters of the Atlantic ? 



If there were no sun to impart heat to this earth, its temperature would fall 

 to that of stellar space, which scientific men inform us is (minus) 239° Fah. 



The actual heat of the water of the North Atlantic is about (plus) 56° Fah., 

 therefore the heat of the sun and the heat of the Gulf Stream are able to raise the 

 temperature of the water 239° + 56° = 295° Fah. above stellar space, and we have 

 already seen that one-fifth of this is due to the Gulf Stream, that is %■ = 59°, or in 

 other words 59° of heat is the heating power of the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic. 



The method, of course, by which currents of water affect climate is by im- 

 parting their heat to the air which blows over them, and as water has a greater 

 specific heat than air, by 4.2 to 1, and as the density of water is 770 times as gfreat 

 as air, it follows that to contain an equal amount of heat, the current of air must 

 be 3,234 times as great as the current of water, if at the same temperature and the 

 same velocity, it will be seen that a comparatively small current of water will have 

 as great effect in distributing heat as a very much larger body of air. It has been 

 calculated that the Gulf Stream carries with it as much heat as a volume of air 

 24,000 miles wide, and Ij miles deep, and moving at the rate of 2 miles an hour, 

 at a temperature of 65°. 



But the point I wish to call attention to is this, that the heated air at the 

 equator never comes into the temperate zones as hot air heated by the rays of a 

 tropical sun, (1) because the trade winds, which blow over tropical regions and 

 take up tropical heat, blow from the temperate zones towards the equator, and 

 not from the equator to the temperate zones, and (2) because the heated air of the 

 equator rises and flows north and south as an upper current above the snow-line, 

 and therefore in a very cold region, and hence by the time the equatorial upper 

 current descends to the earth's surface to blow as a S.W. or N.W. anti-trade 

 wind, it has become a cold or cool and dry wind, and as far as the North Atlantic 

 is concerned, all its warmth and moisture is derived from contact with the Gulf 

 Stream north of the point where the trade and anti-trade winds cross, which is in the 

 northern hemisphere, in about latitude 30° N. Thus we see that it is to the heat 

 carried off by the Gulf Stream from the equatorial regions into the Northern 

 Atlantic that we owe the moisture and warmth of our south-west and west winds, 

 and not to the currents of air or winds blowing direct from the tropics, as no such 

 winds actually do blow, except as upper currents above the snow-line, wheu they 

 become both cold and dry winds. And I wish particularly to draw attention to 

 this fact, that all heated air has a tendency to rise, being lighter and more ex- 

 panded than cold air, and hence it rises up from the surface of the earth and 



