212 niYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA, AND ITS METEOROLOGY. 



always in the same j)lace, as the Gulf Stream (§ 12G) is not 

 always in one place. It probably is always where the waters of 

 the under currents are brought to the surface ; and this, we may 

 imagine, would depend upon the freedom of ingress and 'egress 

 for the currents. Their course may perhaps bo modified more or 

 less by the ice on the surface, by changes, from whatever cause, 

 in the course or velocity of the surface current, fur obviously tho 

 under current could not bring more water into the frozen ocean 

 than the surface current would carry out again, either as ice or 

 water. Exploring parties may have been near this open sea 

 without perceiving the warmth of its climate, for every winter, 

 an example of how very close warm water in the sea and a very 

 severe climate on the land or the ice may be to each other is 

 aiforded to us in the case of the Gulf Stream and the Labrador- 

 like climate of New England, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland. 

 In these countries, in winter, the thermometer fi-equently sinks 

 far below zero, notwithstanding that the tepid waters of the 

 Gulf Stream may be found with their summer temperature within 

 one day's sail of these very, very cold places. 



429. Dr. Kane. — Dr. Kane leports an open sea north of the 

 parallel of 82°. To reach it, his party crossed a barrier of ice 80 

 or 100 miles broad. Before gaining this open water, he founil 

 the thermometer io show the extreme temperature of — 60°. 

 Passing this ice-bound region by travelling north, he stood on 

 the shores of an iceless sea, extending in an unbroken sheet of 

 w^ater as far as the eye could reach towards the pole. Its waves 

 were dashing on the beach with the swell of a boundless ocean. 

 The tides ebbed and flowed in it, and I apprehend that the tidal 

 wave from the Atlantic can no more pass under this icy barrier 

 to be propagated in the seas beyond, than the vibrations of a 

 musical string can pass with its notes a fret upon which the 

 musician has placed his finger. The swell of the sea cannot pass 

 wide fields or extensive barriers of ice ; for De Haven, during 

 his long imprisonment and drift (§ 475), found the ice so firm 

 that he observed regularly from an artificial horizon placed upon 

 it, and found the mercury always "perfectly steady." These 

 tides, therefore must have been born in that cold sea, having 

 their cradle about the North Pole. If these statements and de- 

 ductions be correct, then we infer- that most, if not all the unex- 

 plored regions about the pole are covered with deep water ; for, 

 Avere this unexplored area mostly land or shallow water, it could 



