The Mighty Deep 



Scotland, water nine hundred fathoms deep is 

 found to be at 40° F. 



How strongly this mass of warm water affects 

 the air above it is well known to sailors. When 

 passing from the stream to the outside ocean, 

 or from the ocean to the stream, they often 

 chano-e in a few hours from a warm to a cool 

 or from a cool to a warm climate. The 

 atmosphere is ever ready to tune its mood 

 sympathetically to that of the ocean over which 

 it sweeps. 



We know well in Great Britain that our soft 

 south-west breezes seldom fail to bring us 

 warmth ; though we do not always remember 

 the debt that we owe to our friend the Gulf 

 Stream. 



But for the immense stores of heat carried 

 northward, and given over to us, our Island 

 climate would be different indeed from what it 

 now is. That is why our fellow-subjects in 

 eastern and central Canada, living no farther 

 from the equator than we do ourselves, suffer 

 from an intensity of cold in winter which we 

 never endure. It is difficult to realise that parts 

 of ice-bound Labrador and of Canada, where the 

 thermometer often drops to 40° below zero, are 

 no farther north than London and Paris ; while 



52 



