SCOTTISH GAEDENS IN GENEEAL 



most of its superfluous heat ; and, east of 30 

 west longitude, ceases to be distinguishable from the 

 general eastward drift of water promoted by the 

 prevailing air current from w.s.w. to E.N.E. 

 Dr. James Croll has calculated that the Gulf 

 Stream is responsible for one-fifth of the total heat 

 of the North Atlantic, and that if the warm current 

 were shut off or diverted, the surface temperature 

 of that ocean would fall to an average of three 

 degrees below zero F. that, in short, it would 

 become a frozen sea. Dr. Haughton, on the other 

 hand, has given tables showing that, while the Gulf 

 Stream certainly raises the temperature of our seas 

 very considerably in winter, it actually lowers it in 

 summer. Perhaps all that can be affirmed with 

 certainty is that the Gulf Stream has a genial 

 influence, not only upon the climate of the United 

 Kingdom, but actually within the Arctic circle at 

 Hammerfest. 



Admitting gratefully as we may our indebtedness 

 to this beneficent current, it is not easy to attribute 

 to its sole agency the superior mildness of our western 

 seaboard as compared with the inland and eastern 

 districts. An explanation of that constant pheno- 

 menon must be sought not in the waters beneath 

 the firmament, but in the firmament itself in the 

 general circulation of the atmosphere. 



The air we breathe forms a fluid envelope over 

 the entire globe, which, becoming intensely heated 

 under the ecliptic, expands and rises in a huge 



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