24 A HANDBOOK FOR SOUTHPORT. 



murky, misty islets, their chief phenomena the mighty, 

 crushing glacier, and the electrical flashings of Boreal lights. 

 By what means, and through what processes, they were brought 

 to their present state is in some measure open to conjecture, 

 the most probable being changes in ancient sea levels, and 

 the establishment of strongly denned ocean currents from the 

 mass of heated water around the equator. 



The position of the British Islands on the map, and the 

 unusually mild temperature they enjoy, are so inconsistent 

 that it might puzzle the theorist, as well as the practical man, 

 if he attempted to explain the fact without taking into cal- 

 culation the above all-important cosmical influences. Within 

 a few degrees of the region of perpetual snow, Britain has 

 an atmosphere equal to that of any part of the temperate zone. 

 To tell the nervous, the consumptive, or the hypochondriac, 

 that they are living in a country about the same distance 

 from the Arctic Circle as are the inhabitants of Labrador 

 and Kamtschatka would, at the least, add an extra chill ; to 

 tell the delicate invalid, hastening to the sheltered coast of 

 Devonshire, that he is fixing his winter dwelling to the north- 

 ward of the latitude of the Banks of Newfoundland, would 

 certainly impart an unwelcome shock to his sensibilities. 

 But isothermal lines are not coincident with parallels of 

 latitude, and the modifying circumstances of climate do 

 more than correct the evils of position they very often 

 introduce a bland and salubrious element in situations of the 

 most unpromising description. 



The insular position of these islands, after all, would be of 

 little avail had they not some more vital bond of union with 

 more genial climes. That magic "circle of marriage with 



