§ 173, 174. GULF STREAM, CLIMATES, AND COMMERCE. Qi 



degree of influence which future research may show to be exer- 

 cised by these cool places, and the heat dispensed so near them 

 by these mighty streams of tepid water, there is reason to believe 

 that they do act and react upon each other with no inconsidera- 

 ble meteorological power. In winter the Gulf Stream carries the 

 temperature of summer as far north as the Grand Banks of New- 

 foundland. 



173. The habitual dampness of the climate of the British Isl- 

 ciimates of England auds, as wcll as the occasioual dampness of that 



find silver fogs of ^ i a i • n i 



Newfoundland. along the Atlantic coasts of the United States 

 when easterly winds prevail, is attributable also to the Gulf 

 Stream. These winds come to us loaded with vapors gathered 

 from its warm and smoking waters. The Gulf Stream carries the 

 temperature of summer, even in the dead of winter, as far north 

 as the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, and there maintains it in 

 the midst of the severest frosts. It is the presence of this warm 

 water and a cold atmosphere in juxtaposition there which gives 

 rise to the " silver fogs" of Newfoundland, one of the most beau- 

 tiful phenomena to be seen any where among the treasures of the 

 frost-king. 



174. The Gulf Stream exercises a powerful influence upon 

 influenceg upon ^hc storms of the North Atlantic, especially those 

 storms. which lake their rise within the tropics, even as 

 far over as the coast of Africa, and also upon those which, 

 though not intertropical in their origin, are known to visit the 

 offings of our own coasts. These gales, in whatever part of the 

 ocean east of the Gulf Stream they take their rise, march to the 

 northwest until they join it, when they " recurvate," as the phrase 

 is, and take up their line of march to the northeast along with it. 

 Gales of wind have been traced from latitude 10° JST. on the other 

 side of the Atlantic to the Gulf Stream on this, and then with it 

 back again to the other side, off the shores of Europe. B}^ ex- 

 amining the log-books of ships, the tracks of storms have been 

 traced out and followed for a week or ten days. Their path is 

 marked by wreck and disaster. At a meeting of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, in 1854, Mr. Red- 

 field mentioned one which he had traced out, and in which no 

 less than seventy odd vessels had been wrecked, dismasted, or 

 damaged. 



