TEMPERATURE OF THE MEDITERRANEAN. 73 



little from 32^ Fahr., or five degrees above its freezing- 

 point. 



In the case of landlocked seas there is not this great 

 difference between the temperature of the surface and 

 of the lower strata. The jMediterranean, for example, 

 receives the surface-waters of the ocean through the 

 Straits of Gibraltar, whilst its deeper waters flow out- 

 wards.* Consequently, it is the heated water of the 

 ocean which penetrates into this interior §ea; and the 

 action of the sun being upon a closed basin, so to 

 speak, and by far more constant than upon the ocean, 

 which is traversed by the polar waters rushing in a 

 mighty torrent to sun themselves in the torrid zone, 

 the bottom of the Mediterranean cannot possibly be 

 so cold as the bottom of the ocean itself. The Eed 

 Sea presents the same phenomena, in this respect, as 

 the Mediterranean. The currents of Babelraandeb 

 are analaffous to those of Gibraltar. The Red Sea is 

 one of the hottest expanses of water on the globe. 

 Life pulsates in every corner and recess of it, and 



* A very curious incident first suggested the exi.^tence of a sub- 

 marine current in the Straits of Gibraltar. A corsair brig sunk in 

 sight of Ceuta. and disappeared. At tliis point tlie current runs 

 very strong:, and, of eourse, frt)m wufrt to east. What then was tho 

 surprise of everybody to see the brig reappear some time, afterwards 

 many leagues weftward of the point where she h;id sunk ! It is 

 plain that the vessel must have been drifted to that point by a sub- 

 marin(; current running in the contrary diiection to the current od 

 ti-enjurlace 



