THE WINDS OF THE OCEAN 79 



of the Newfoundland fogs, making the navigation of 

 the coasts north of Japan exceedingly difficult ; in 

 fact, the Kurile Islands, which extend from the 

 northern island of Japan to Kamchatka, are so-called 

 from a Kamchatkan word signifying smoke, since they 

 are nearly always veiled in fog as dense as smoke, 

 which is thickened by the smoke from active volcanoes. 

 And since the Japanese stream has not been so fully 

 warmed as the Gulf Stream by a sojourn in an 

 equatorial basin, and a cold counter current hugs the 

 shore from the north, the northern coast of Japan, 

 Siberia, and the Kuriles are, although not really very 

 far north, quite Arctic in their temperature, while the 

 frequent gales that blow make the whole region in- 

 clement in the extreme, and, from the sailor's point of 

 view, detestable. Indeed, this part of the North 

 Pacific may well challenge the corresponding latitudes 

 in the North Atlantic for the pre-eminence in vile 

 weather, but fortunately for sailor-humanity it is, com- 

 pared with the North Atlantic, an unfrequented sea. 



The western coasts of British North America, 

 too, although in about the same latitude as our own 

 favoured land, are in the winter quite hyperborean 

 in character, the Pacific current answering to our 

 Gulf Stream having failed to bring them the warmth 

 they need from the far distant curves off the East 

 Indian archipelago, where it begins its eastward 

 course. But the whole of the North Pacific above 

 the tropics is a stormy, troubled region, where ice- 

 laden gales rage over vast sea surfaces, and prevent 

 the adjacent lands from being pleasant places of habi- 

 tation, with the emphatic exception of California, 

 perhaps the most delightful climate in the world. 



