OCEAN CURRENTS 127 



islands blossom like the rose because of the tropical 

 warmth it bears to us across the ocean. Of course, as 

 I hinted a little while back, this current, although 

 fairly entitled to be called permanent, is subject to 

 many disturbances fraught with great discomfort to 

 us here in Britain. For instance, a long-continued 

 spell of north-easterly winds will hinder its coming 

 east, and consequently reduce us all to such a con- 

 dition of mind and body that we are inclined to ask 

 despairingly, " Is life worth living ? " An increase in 

 the number of icebergs calved from the great northern 

 glaciers, and borne south by the current already 

 alluded to, will bear into our friendly warm current 

 such a mass of congealed water that its temperature 

 will fall rapidly, and we ask ourselves, without any 

 hope of a favourable answer, Where is the summer ? 

 What is happening to the poor old world ? And some 

 of us go so far as to blame the spots on the sun, or, 

 rather, the rents in his envelope of incandescent gas, 

 for what, if we looked nearer home, we should find 

 ample reason. But these experiences exemplify in a 

 most striking degree how dependent we are in this our 

 homeland on the regular performance of its functions 

 by the ocean for the right to live. It is only another 

 instance of how entirely dependent the British Empire 

 is upon the sea for its existence. Take it whichever 

 way we will, we live by favour of the sea, and that 

 being so, I am always in a chronic state of astonish- 

 ment that the chief place in our school curriculum is 

 not given to a consideration of all that the sea means 

 to us. Unhappily the fact remains, that with a reputa- 

 tion for practicality exceeding that of any other nation, 

 I have the greatest possible doubt whether we are not 



