274 Capt. Sabine on the Depression of the Horizon 



to a nearer approximation to the natural temperature of the 

 ocean in the former than in the latter case, and that the dif- 

 ference between the excess of 5° 5' in November, and of 3° 2' 

 in January, may be thus accounted for. If the explanation 

 of the apparently very unusual facts observed by Dr Frank- 

 lin in 1776, and by the Iphigenia in 1822, be correct, how 

 highly curious is the connection thus traced between a more 

 than ordinary strength of the winds within the tropics in the 

 summer, occasioning the derangement of the level of the 

 Mexican and Caribbean Seas, and the high temperature of the 

 sea between the British Channel and Madeira, in the follow- 

 ing winter. 



Nor is the probable meteorological influence undeserving 

 of attention, of so considerable an increase in the temperature 

 of the surface water, over an extent of ocean exceeding 600 

 miles in latitude, and 1000 in longitude, situated so import- 

 antly in relation to the western parts of Europe. 



It is at least a remarkable coincidence, that in November 

 and December 1821, and in January 1822, the state of the 

 weather was so unusual in the southern parts of Great Bri- 

 tain, and in France, as to have excited general observation. 



In the meteorological journals of the period, it is character- 

 ized as " most extraordinarily hot, damp, stormy, and op- 

 pressive ;" it is stated, " that an unusual quantity of rain fell 

 both in November and December, but particularly in the lat- 

 ter; that " the gales from the W. and SW. were almost 

 without intermission ;" and that in December, the mercury 

 in the barometer was lower than it had been known for thirty- 

 five years before. 



Art. XII. — On the Depression of the Horizon of the Sea over 

 the Gulf-Stream *. By Edward Sabine, Esq. F. R. S. 

 F. L. S. &c. &c. 



In estimating the depression of the horizon of the sea, cor- 

 responding to the different heights of an observer's eye, the 



* Having already laid before our readers the results of various observa- 

 tions on the depression of the horizon, (see this Journal, vol. ii- p- 365,) 

 we think it proper to call their attention to the following valuable obser- 



i 



