THE CENTURY'S PROGRESS IN METEOROLOGY 



a slight change in the relative values of northern and 

 southern trade-winds (such as he believes has taken 

 place at various periods in the past) would suffice to so 

 alter the equatorial current which now feeds the Gfilf 

 Stream that its main bulk would be deflected southward 

 instead of northward, by the angle of Cape St. Roque. 

 Thus the Gulf Stream would be nipped in the bud, and, 

 according to Dr. Croll's estimates, the results would be 

 disastrous for the northern hemisphere. The anti-trades, 

 which now are warmed by the Gulf Stream, would then 

 blow as cold winds across the shores of western^ Europe, 

 and in all probability a glacial epoch would supervene 

 throughout the northern hemisphere. 



The same consequences, so far as Europe is con- 

 cerned at least, would apparently ensue were the Isth- 

 mus of Panama to settle into the sea, allowing the Ca- 

 ribbean current to pass into the Pacific. But the geol- 

 ogist tells us that this isthmus rose at a comparatively 

 recent geological period, though it is hinted that there 

 had been some time previously a temporary land con- 

 nection between the two continents. Are we to infer, 

 then, that the two Americas in their unions and dis- 

 unions have juggled with the climate of "the other hem- 

 isphere ? Apparently so, if the estimates made of the 

 influence of the Gulf Stream be tenable. It is a far cry 

 from Panama to Russia. Yet it seems within the possi- 

 bilities that the meteorologist may learn from the geolo- 

 gist of Central America something that will enable him 

 to explain to the paleontologist of Europe how it 

 chanced that at one time the mammoth and rhinoceros 

 roamed across northern Siberia, while at another time 

 the reindeer and musk-ox browsed along the shores of 

 the Mediterranean. 



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