232 



influence on our climate. Our present knowledge of the move- 

 ments of this stream is insufficient for determining whether this 

 circumstance may or may not have co-operated with other agencies 

 in occasioning the cold.* 



A second cause assigned for it is the possible occurrence of ice- 

 bergs in the Atlantic. No doubt icebergs, breaking away from 

 the great mass of ice within the Arctic circle, do some seasons, in 

 their passage southward, have a decided influence on our spring 

 and summer months, chilling the atmosphere to immense dis- 

 tances, and, by their large condensation of vapour, bringing both 

 wet and cold to our shores, t But such bergs would not ordinarily 

 be detached earlier than the first setting in of the warm season, 

 when the melting process would begin. Consequently, though 

 they miglit aff'ect our spring and summer, we should not have 

 expected the severity of the previous winter to be due to such 

 cause. Our knowledge, however, here is very imperfect ; and it 

 was stated in the Times of the 18th of last August that intelligence 

 had been received at New York of the " United States Revenue 

 vessel Richard Rush having passed through Behring's Straits 

 within 75 miles of East Cape ; her captain reporting that the sea 

 northward of that point was clear of ice ; as also that last winter 

 had been unusually warm and the ice broke uj} earlier than usual." 



Nor should the testimony of "an old whale-fisher" on this 

 subject, recorded in another Times paper, be passed over. " He 



• Since the reading of this paper, an article has appeared in " Nature " (vol. 

 21, p. 130), on the subject of the Gulf Stream, and the great want of increased 

 observation and record with respect to its temperature and variations of course 

 in its movement northwards from the tropics. It is suggested that the abnormal 

 weather of last year may have been due to the heaping up of its waters at its 

 source in consequence of " an unusual prevalence of Arctic winds and unusual 

 cold in these latitudes;" whereby " a counter action or retarding influence" 

 would be exerted on " the volume and velocity of the tropical waters which 

 usually flow towards our coast," and mitigate the severity of our winters. 



t See further on this subject " Proceedings of Bath Field Club," Vol. 1,, 

 No. 3., p. 65. 



