130 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



enced last winter has had something to do with this. 

 The influence of the Gulf Stream upon our climate, 

 and the special influence which it is assumed to exer- 

 cise in mitigating the severity of our winters, have 

 been so long recognized that meteorologists began to 

 inquire what changes could be supposed to have taken 

 place in the great current to account for so remarkable 

 a winter as the last. But it happened also that at a 

 meeting of the Royal Geographical Society early in 

 the present year the very existence of the Gulf Stream 

 was called in question, just when meteorologists were 

 disposed to assign to it effects of unusual importance. 

 And in the course of the discussion whether there is in 

 truth a Gulf Stream or rather whether our shores are 

 visited by a current which merits such a name a 

 variety of interesting facts were adduced, which were 

 either before unknown or had attracted little attention. 

 As at a recent meeting of the same society these doubts 

 have been renewed, we propose to examine briefly, in 

 the first place, a few of the considerations which have 

 been urged against the existence of a current from the 

 Gulf of Mexico to the neighborhood of our shores ; 

 and then, having rehabilitated the reputation of this 

 celebrated ocean-river as we believe we shall be able 

 to do we shall proceed to give a brief sketch of the 

 processes by which the current-system of the North 

 Atlantic is set and maintained in motion. 



In reality the Gulf Stream is only a part of a 



