CLIMATE, WEATHER, TILES, ETC. 51 



along the Niphon coast to Kiukasan, where it meets with the 

 warm Kuro Shiwo coming from the opposite direction, and either 

 mini,des with its waters or sinks beneath the surface and continues 

 its course as an under cm'rent. Its influence is sometimes felt as far 

 south as Inuboye Saki, where, in the month of April, to the 

 northward of the cape, the temperature of the sea has been found 

 to be 42- as against 62° to the eastward of it. Throughout the 

 sumruer the Oya Shiwo appears to be coldest at the surface along 

 the Kuril Islands, where its temperature I have found to be, in 

 April, 30''; in May, 33" to 35^; from June to middle of August, 35'' 

 to 36" ; and from that time to end of October, 37" to 42' Fahr. Tlie 

 reasons for this, I venture to think, are as follows : The Arctic 

 current, flowing to the south-westward through Bering's Strait 

 and along the coast of Kamchatka, has its coldest water deep 

 beneath the surface, and this colder water does not get brought to 

 the top until it meets with obstructions like islands and the cross- 

 currents flowing between them. Where no such obstructions exist, 

 or only to a small extent, as, for example, along the Kamchatkan 

 coast and the coasts of Yezo and Xiphon, the surface water of this 

 current is several degrees warmer. 



As confirming this theory, I may mention that last summer 

 (1891), when on a voyage to the Bering Sea and Arctic Ocean, the 

 islands of St. Matthew and St. Lawrence were visited. Both these 

 islands were enveloped in thick fog when we approached them, but 

 their near presence was indicated by a sudden fall in the tempera- 

 ture of the water of from T to 10^ 



Here the colder water from below had evidently been brought 

 to the surface by meeting with the submerged portions of these 

 islands. This band of colder surface water did not extend more 

 than a few miles from the shore. 



The fact of the Oya Shiwo, in the vicinity of the Kuril Islands, 

 Vieing at its warmest in the autumn, is attributable partly to the 

 temperature of the air being then much higher — the sun having 

 considerable power from there being little or no fog — and partly 

 to the fresh westerly breezes which then prevail, which naturally 

 drive some of the warmer water of the Okhotsk Sea into it. 



The Oya Shiwo varies in extent and velocity at different 

 seasons. In winter the current is wider and also stronger. During 

 the summer its speed is about three-quarters to one knot per hour, 



