144 . REPORT—1857. 
that Dr. Robinson’s supposition of Baalgad having been “ no other than the secluded 
grotto,” Panium near Paneas, now called Banias, was quite untenable. He, on the 
contrary, conceived that the ancient and long-lost Baalgad must have stood either in 
Wadi £’ Teim, or in a neighbouring smaller valley of Lebanon, on the west of, and 
under Mount Hermon, named at this day the ‘ Mountain of the Chief,’ or Gebel E’ 
Sheikh. Indeed, he said that a hope might be entertained that among the numerous 
ancient ruins and temples still remaining in the Wadis near the Lebanon, some 
vestiges of Baalgad might yet be discovered, when more careful explorations shall 
have been made, in the secluded western gorges adjacent to the noble Hermon. 
Mr. Hogg pointed out the supposed position of Baalgad, as it accorded with the 
accounts of Holy Writ, on a sketch map which he had coloured and drawn on a 
scale eight-times enlarged, from a part of Kiepert’s ‘“‘ New Map of Palestine and 
Ceelesyria,” 1856, extending from nearly 33° 14! to 34° north latitude, and from 
about 35° 35’ to 36° 11’ east longitude; and he also explained from it the sites of 
other Biblical localities, as well as the present courses of the principal rivers in that 
portion of Syria. 
On the Cause of the Mild Winter Temperature of the British Islands. 
By T. Horxins. 
In this paper the writer combated the opinion that the mild winter temperature of 
the north-western part of Europe is attributable to the warm ocean stream that flows 
from the Gulf of Mexico into the Atlantic Ocean. He denied that the mere con- 
tiguity of a warm current makes the adjoining country warm. In support of this, 
it was shown that the parts of America close to the Gulf and the warm stream, are 
not warmed by them. On the contrary, Louisiana and Florida, notwithstanding 
their vicinity to the warm water, were shown to have cold winter climates; and this 
character attaches to the sea-board of America that extends parallel with the Gulf- 
stream. 
It was shown that Dove’s Isothermal line for the month of January, of 50° Fahr., 
passed over the 45° of latitude in the Pacific Ocean, but that it descended to the 32nd 
degree near the Gulf of Mexico, and when crossing the warm Florida stream the line 
rose but little; yet as it passed to the middle of the Atlantic it ascended to the same 
latitude that it passed over in the Pacific, thus showing that it was as cold over the 
warm stream in a southern as in the middle of the Atlantic in a northern latitude. 
Extracts were given from Dr. Scoresby’s paper on the temperature of the northern 
Atlantic, in which it was shown that the cold current which flows from Baffin’s 
Bay, and passes the island of Newfoundland, intervenes between the Gulf-stream 
and the ocean to the north of 40° of latitude, stopping its progress east in that 
latitude. ‘These facts, it was contended, showed that the warm water of the Gulf- 
stream flowed, as described by Humboldt, towards the Azores, and therefore could 
not warm the north-west parts of Europe. 
It was stated also that an ocean current runs from 7° of south latitude along the 
Brazilian and eastern Patagonian coasts, but that it no more warms those countries 
than the Gulf-stream does the adjacent parts of America, all these countries being 
dry and cool in the winter season. It was contended that the mild winter climate 
of the British Islands was due to copious condensation of vapour brought from the 
surface of the Atlantic Ocean. This vapour is condensed freely in the winter and 
warms the atmosphere, the vapour giving out its heat of elasticity to the air, this 
warmth extending to other parts in proportion to the amount of vapour condensed. 
The Isle of Skye in Scotland is warm in the winter, and it is recorded that more rain 
had fallen in that island in the single month of January than falls in Paris or London 
in a year. 
Tastes were given of sudden changes of winter weather from cold to warm, in 
Manchester and Paris, under circumstances which proved that much heat was 
brought to those parts in vapour. Other parts of the world, distant from the tro- 
pics, were also pointed out, which were rendered warm in their winters by conden- 
sation of vapour, and not through the contiguity of a warm ocean. The north-west 
coast of America, up to the latitude of 60°, has as warm a winter climate as the 
western coast of Europe in the same latitudes. And Western Patagonia and Cape. 
See ehr we bane 
Sead 
