282 On the Glaciers and Climate of Iceland. 



proceeding from the Strait of Florida, divides itself, in a more 

 northern region, into two principal branches ; of which the 

 gi'eater is directed towai-ds the Azores, and the less towards 

 the north of Europe, where it spreads itself, as it were, in 

 the form of a fan in the sea, between Scotland and Iceland. 

 This current, in the middle of which the Feroe Islands are 

 situated, can be still fjirther traced along the coast of Scan- 

 dinavia, from the 63d degree of latitude to the 74th, and it 

 produces a very sensible influence on the climate of this land. 

 It would, however, be by no means a correct representation 

 of the case to assume, in the ultimate ramifications of the 

 Gulf Stream, such a determinate motion of the masses of 

 water as that which occurs on the coast of Florida, where 

 the stream has its greatest velocity and temperature, and its 

 smallest breadth. The velocity of the current diminishes as 

 the breadth increases ; and hence, at great distances from 

 the source of the current, circumstances, arising, for instance, 

 from opposing storms, may sometimes intervene, which may 

 be capable of interrupting the regular course of the water. 

 According to an estimate made by Captain Irminger,* and 

 founded on the best observations that have hitherto been 

 made on the various parts of the Gulf Stream, a floating body 

 would be about 161 days on its passage fi'om the Strait of 

 Florida to the Feroe Islands. We are inclined to regard this 

 period as being on the average much too short ; although, 

 under very favourable circumstances, six months might be 

 sufficient. Trunks of trees, distinctly of American origin, 

 covered with mussels and sea-weed, or bored through by 

 Pholades, are frequently found on the northern coasts of 

 Europe, having performed their journey on the Gulf Stream. 

 Thus, for example, there is exhibited in the museum of the 

 Highland Agricultural Society in Edinburgh, a palm-tree, 



* Captain-Lieutenant Irminger, in a learned paper on the Velocity of the 

 Gulf Stream, and its course between Iceland and Northern Europe (See Nyt 

 Archiv for Sbvaesenet, Copenhagen, 1843), has collected various observations 

 on the direction and velocity of the Gulf Stream. To his liindness I am in- 

 debted for many eommunications and experiments, relating to the currents in 

 the Atlantic Ocean, of which I have availed myself in preparing the present 

 article. 



