GULF STKEAM, CLIMATES, AND COJOIERCE. 55 



of the Gulf Stream may lie ; but assuming the temperature and 

 velocity at the depth of two hundred fathoms to he those of the 

 surface, and taking the well-known difference between the 

 capacity of air and of water for specific heat as the argument, a 

 simple calculation will show that the quantity of heat discharged 

 over the Atlantic from the waters of the Gulf Stream in a winter's 

 day would be sufficient to raise the whole column of atmosphere 

 that rests upon France and the British Islands from the freezing 

 point to summer heat. 



153. Contrasts of climates in the same latitudes. — Every west 

 wind that blows crosses this stream on its wa}-- to Europe, and 

 carries with it a portion of this heat to temper there the northern 

 winds of winter. It is the influence of this stream upon climate 

 that makes Erin the "Emerald Isle of the Sea," — that clothes 

 the shores of Albion in evergreen robes ; while in the same 

 latitude, on this side, the coasts of Labrador are fast bound 

 in fetters of ice. In a valuable paper on currents,* Mr. Eedfield 

 states, that in 1831 the harbour of St. John's, Newfoundland, 

 was closed with ice as late as the month of Jrme; 3'et who 

 ever heard of the port of Liverpool, on the other side, though 

 2^ farther north, being closed wdth ice, even in the dead of 

 winter ? 



1 54. Milclness of an Orlcney ivinter. — The Thermal Chart (Plate 

 ly.) shows this. The isothermal lines of 60°, 50°, etc., starting 

 off from the parallel of 40° near the coasts of the L^nited States, 

 run off in a north-eastwardly direction, showing the same oceanic 

 temperature on the European side of the Atlantic in latitude 55° 

 or 60° that we have on the western side in latitude 40°. Scott, 

 in one of his beautiful novels, tells us that the ponds in the 

 Orkneys (latitude near 60°) are not frozen in winter. The 

 people there owe their soft climate to this grand heating appa- 

 ratus, and to the latent heat of the vapours from it which is 

 liberated duriiig the precipitation of them upon the regions round 

 about. Driftwood from the West Indies is occasionally cast 

 upon the islands of the North Sea and Northern Ocean by the 

 Gulf Stream. 



155. Amount of heat daily escaping through the Gulf Stream. — Nor 

 do the beneficial influences of this stream upon climate end 

 here. The West Indian Archipelago is encompassed on one 

 side by its chain of islands, and on the other by the Cordilleras 



* American Journal of Science, vol. xiv., p. 293. 



