CLIMATES OF OUR ATLANTIC WATERS 



By Dr. A. G. Huntsman 

 University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada 



The word "climate," coming from the Greek word 

 k\\lv€lv, — to lean, was at first used in reference to the 

 changes in the elevation of the sun at midday on travelling 

 from the equator to the north, the sun getting lower and lower 

 in the heavens. The earth was, therefore, considered to slope 

 from the equator to the pole. From this usage it came to mean 

 one of a series of zones of the earth's surface running parallel 

 to the equator, twenty- four in all, and later to mean the com- 

 plex of conditions in the atmosphere that characterize any 

 place and distinguish it from another not only in a different 

 latitude but also in the same latitude. It may be used in the 

 same fashion for the complex of conditions in the water or 

 hydrosphere that may characterize a place, and in that sense we 

 wish to discuss the question of the varied climates that are to 

 be found in our Atlantic waters as well as some of their effects 

 on the fishes living in those waters. 



Conditions in the hydrosphere are more stable and in some 

 respects less variable than those in the atmosphere. For 

 example, although the water is warmed by sun's rays just 

 as is the air, its specific heat is so great compared with that of 

 air that heating and cooling are much delayed, midwinter in 

 the water with us occurring at the end of February and mid- 

 summer at the end of August, The total range in temperature 

 may be considered as only from 29° to 80° F. as compared with 

 from — 50° to 105° F. for the air. Movements, to a very 

 much greater extent than temperature changes, are more limited 

 in the water than in the air. The much greater weight of water 

 as well as its greater viscosity makes it harder to set in motion 

 and more difficult to stop. Currents in the water are slower 

 and more constant than those in the air. 



Differences of temperature are dependent largely upon lati- 



