62 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA, AND ITS METEOEOLOGY. 



littoral ciuTents so cold as those of our ocean are, yet they lave 

 the shores of a broader continent, and hug them quite as closely 

 as ours do. Moreover, the Japan Current, mth its neighbouring 

 seas, is some 500 miles nearer to the pole of maximum cold than 

 the GuK Stream of the Atlantic is. Great prominence in the 

 brewing of storms is to be given to the latent heat vfhich is set free 

 in the air when vapom- is condensed into rain. The North Pacific 

 being broader than the North Atlantic, supphes its shores (§ 283) 

 more abundantly with vapom' than the North Atlantic does. This 

 no doubt assists to make fmious and more frequent the storms of 

 the North Pacific. 



172. Some philosophers hold that there are in the northern 

 Position of the poles hemisphere two poles of maximum cold : the Asiatic, 

 aLXlrSueS near the intersection of the parallel of 80° with the 

 oTy of'thSe^two ^©I'iclian of 120'' E., and the American, near lat. 

 ocelns. 79^ and long. 100° W. The Asiatic pole is the 

 colder. The distance between it and the Japan CmTent is about 

 1500 miles ; the distance between the other pole and the Gulf 

 Stream is about 2000 miles. The bringing of the heat of summer, 

 as these two streams do, in such close juxtaposition with the cold of 

 winter, cannot fail to produce violent commotions in tlie atmo- 

 sphere. These commotions, as indicated by the storms, are far 

 more frequent and violent in vdnter, when the contrasts between 

 the warm and cool places are greater, than they are in summer, 

 when those contrasts are least. Moreover, each of these poles is to 

 the north-west of its ocean, the quarter whence come the most 

 terrific gales of winter, ^'^rbatever be the exact degTee of influence 

 which future research may show to be exercised 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 inconsiderable meteorological 

 power. In winter the Gulf Stream carries the temperatm-e of 

 summer as far north as the Grand Banks of Newfomidland. 



173. The habitual dampness of the cHmate of the British 

 Climates of England Jslauds, as wcll as the occasioual dampness of that 

 Scwfouu^andf ^ along the Atlantic coasts of the United States 

 vvhen easterly v/inds prevail, is attributable also to the Gulf 

 Stream. These winds come to us loaded mth vapom's gathered 

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

 temperatm-e of summer, even in the dead of winter, as far north 

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



