222 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



the causes be what they may (and presently we shall 

 have a further cause to take into account), it is ad- 

 mitted by all physical geographers that a great, though 

 slow current, or drift, does pass eastwards from the 

 neighbourhood of Newfoundland. Moreover, it is ad- 

 mitted by all that the southern part of this current 

 (which the Edinburgh Reviewer actually regards as 

 identifiable with the Grulf Stream 1 ) traverses the At- 

 lantic until, nearing the Azores, it joins the southwardly 

 Guinea current ; while the northern part passes on a 

 north-easterly course, which carries it between Britain 

 and Iceland, between Sweden and Spitzbergen, onwards, 

 even as far as the very neighbourhood of Nova Zembla. 

 Lastly, it is admitted by all that, directly or indi- 

 rectly, this great north-easterly current causes the 

 climate of Great Britain, and of the north-western 

 parts of Europe generally, to be milder than that of 

 North American regions in corresponding latitudes. 



It might appear, then, that all these things being 

 admitted, no question of any importance remains, so 

 far as the actual facts of the oceanic surface-circulation 

 are in question. We shall presently see that a question 

 has arisen as to the cause of the observed facts ; but as 

 to their nature everything that seems worth discussing 

 at ail appears to be satisfactorily disposed of. 



Let those readers who in their simplicity have 

 adopted this notion hasten to dispossess themselves of 

 it by reading some remarks by Dr. Hayes, the American 



1 He says that the great equatorial current is partly supplied ' by the 

 return of a portion of the Gulf Stream.' 



