THE SPECITIC GRAVITY OF THE SEA, ETC. 201 



established the existence — the occasional existence, if you please — 

 of a channel through which whales had passed. Therefore we felt 

 bound to introduce other evidence before we could expect the reader 

 to admit oiu' proof, and to beheve with us in the existence of an 

 open sea in the Arctic Ocean. 



424. There is an under current setting from the Atlantic through 

 The under current Davis' Strait iuto the Arctic Ocean, and there is 

 into the Arciic ^ surfacc cmTCut Setting out. Observations have 



Ocean — its inilu- . -i • o t • ^ j. 



ences. pomtcd out the existence oi this under current 



there, for navigators tell of immense icebergs which they have 

 seen drifting rapidly to ilie north, and against a strong surface cur- 

 rent. These icebergs were high above the water, and their depth 

 below, supposing them to be parallelepipeds, was at least seven 

 times greater than their height above. No doubt they were drifted 

 by a powerful under current. Now this under current comes from 

 the south, where it is warm, and the temperature of its waters is 

 perhaps not below 30° ; at any rate, they are comparatively warm. 

 There must be a place somewhere in the arctic seas where this 

 under current ceases to flow north, and begins to flow south as a 

 surface current ; for the sui'face current, though its waters are mixed 

 with the fresh waters of the rivers and of precipitation in the polar 

 basin, nevertheless bears out vast quantities of salt, which is fur- 

 nished neither by the rivers nor the rains. These salts are 

 supplied by the under current ; for as much salt as one current 

 brings in, other currents must take out, else the polar basin would 

 become a basin of salt ; and where the under current transfers its 

 waters to the surface, there is, it is supposed, a basin in which the 

 waters, as they rise to the surface, are at 30°, or whatever be the 

 temperature of the under current, which we know must be above 

 the freezing-point, for the current is of water in a fluid, not m a 

 solid state. An arrangement in natm-e, by which a basin of con- 

 siderable area in the ii'ozen ocean could be supphed by water 

 -coming in at the bottom and rising up at the top, with a tempe- 

 rature not below 30°, or even 27°.2 — the freezing-point of sea water 

 — would go far to mitigate the climate in the regions round about. 



425. And that there is a warmer climate somewhere in that in- 

 •indications of a hospitablc sca, the observations of many of the ex- 

 miider climate. plorci's who havo visitcd it indicate. Its existence may 

 be inferred also from the well-knoAvn fact that the birds and animals 

 are found at certain seasons migrating to the north, evidently in 

 -search of milder climates. The instincts of these dumb creatures are 



