Report on Marine Meteorological Observations. 377 



quite home to the coast of Europe. The presence of a body of 

 unusually heated water, extending for several hundred miles both in 

 latitude and in longitude, and continuing for several weeks, at a 

 season of the year when the prevailing winds blow from that quarter 

 on the coasts of England and France, can scarcely be imagined to 

 be without a considerable influence on the relations of temperature 

 and moisture in those countries. In accordance with this supposition, 

 we find in the Meteorological Journals of the more recent period 

 (which are more easily accessible), that the state of the weather in 

 November and December 1821 and January 1822 was so unusual in 

 the southern parts of Great Britain and in France, as to have excited 

 general observation ; we find it characterised as " most extraordi- 

 narily hot, damp, stormy, and oppressive," that "the gales from 

 the W. and S.W. were almost Avithout intermission," " the fall of 

 rain was excessive" and "the barometer lower than it had ever 

 been known for 35 years before." 



There can be little doubt that Major Rennell was right in 

 ascribing the unusual extension of the Gulf-stream in particular 

 years to its greater initial velocity, occasioned by a more than ordi- 

 nary difference in the levels of the Gulf of Mexico and of the Atlantic 

 in the preceding summer. An unusual height of the Gulf of Alexico 

 at the head of the stream, or an unusual velocity of the stream at its 

 outset in the Strait of Florida, are facts which may admit of being 

 recognized by properly directed attention ; and as these must pre- 

 cede, by many weeks, the arrival of the warm water of the stream 

 at above 3000 miles' distance from its outset, and the climatic effects 

 thence resulting, it might be possible to anticipate the occurrence 

 of such unusual seasons upon our coasts. 



Much, indeed, may undoubtedly be done towards the inci'ease of 

 our partial acquaintance with the phaenomena of the Gulf-stream, 

 and of its counter currents, by the collection and coordination of 

 observations made by casual passages of ships in different years and 

 different seasons across different parts of its course ; but for that 

 full and complete knowledge of all its particulars, which should meet 

 the maritime and scientific requirements of the period in which we 

 live, we must await the disposition of Government to accede to the 

 recommendation, so frequently made to them by the most eminent 

 hydrographical authorities, of a specific survey of the stream by 

 vessels employed for that special service. What has been recently 

 accomplished by the Government of the United States in this respect, 

 shows both the importance of the inquiry and the great extent of 

 the research; and lends great weight to the proposition, which has 

 been made to Her Majesty's Government on the part of the United 

 States, for a joint survey of the whole stream by vessels of the two 

 countries. The establishment of an office under the Board of Trade 

 specially charged with the reduction and coordination of such data 

 may materially facilitate such an undertaking. 



Storms or Gales. 



It is much to be desired both for the purposes of navigation and 

 for those of general science, that the caj)tains of Her Majesty's ships 

 Phil. May. S. V. Vol. 10. No. (\7. Nov. 1855. 2 C 



