XVIII. THE CLIMATE OF IRELAND, AND THE CURRENTS 

 OF THE ATLANTIC. 



Lecture delivered before the Dublin Young Men's Christian Association, Oct. 25th, 1865. 



IT is an old remark of Dr. Johnson, that " when two Englishmen 

 meet, their first talk is of the weather ; they are in haste to tell 

 each other, what each must already know, that it is hot or cold, 

 bright or cloudy, windy or calm." And he ascribes this to the 

 variability of our climate, and to the hopes and apprehensions 

 Avhich constant change is sure to engender ; for we naturally 

 congratulate or condole with one another, according as the. one 

 or the other is realized. 



Now although in this climate the state of the weather from 

 day to day is so changeable as almost to baffle the power of 

 anticipation, there are yet mean laws, and average results, which 

 we obtain from systematic observation, followed throughout long 

 periods, and which teach us what, in the long run, we may expect. 

 To some of the more important of these laws, especially in their 

 bearing on our own climate, I propose to invite your attention 

 this evening ; and I trust you will bear with me if, in a subject 

 adapted to instruction rather than amusement, I am obliged to 

 enter occasionally into what some may consider dry details. 



I need not tell you, that the existence, and the continued 

 support, of animal and vegetable life, are dependent upon solar 

 heat. If the sun were extinguished, a few hours would suffice to 

 voduce our globe to a frozen and unchanging mass, and to destroy 

 ji.ll living beings on its surface. It has been calculated that the 

 amount of heat received by the earth from the sun in the course 



