NOETH-EASTEELY SET TO WESTEEN EUEOPE, ETC. 427 



" Between Iceland and the Faeroe Islands the Gulf and Polar Streams 

 are contending against each other, and the result of this struggle is a sea 

 divided into a great number of hot and cold bands, which fact was demon- 

 strated clearly by Lord Dufferin's cruize from Stornoway to Eeikiavik, in 

 1856, and fully corroborated by Dr. Wallich, in the Bulldog expedition of 

 1860. The chart accompanying Dr. Wallich's memoir, has a very good 

 representation of these currents. 



" The fact that the two streams, in their contest, appear as many bands 

 and strata, alongside, over, and beneath each other, is proved not only by 

 the observations of the temperature on the surface of the sea by Admiral 

 Irminger and Lord Dufferin, but also by the researches of Dr. Wallich in 

 regard to the nature of the bottom of the sea. The latter found there 

 some volcanic stones pointing as their origin to Jan-Mayen, and at other 

 places ophiocomcB of 2 to 5 inches in length, which could have been carried 

 there only by the warm Gulf Stream. Another argument is that the drift 

 ice penetrates here farther to the South than anywhere else East of Iceland. 

 Scoresby, for instance, in 1822, observed great masses of heavy ice in lat. 

 64*^ 30' N., long. 7° 0' W., and detached pieces even as far South as lat. 

 63° 40' N., long. 8° W., and as far East as long. 3° W., in lat. 66^ 49' N. 

 Even still farther Southward ice was seen by Sir James Clark Eoss, ir 

 lat. 61° 0' N., long. 6° 0' W., which is S.E. of the Faeroe Islands. 



" In the same manner the temperature of the sea at the Faeroe Islands, 

 even down to the Shetland and Orkney Islands, appears depressed in com- 

 parison with that of the West coast of Iceland. The isothermal lines show 

 from Jan-Mayen, a remarkable concavity as far as the North Sea, which 

 can be caused only by the cooling influence of the Polar Stream. Eeikiavik 

 and Stykkisholmr (lat. 65° 4' N.) have, in July, a temperature of the sea 

 of 52-9° and 60°, while at Thorshavn, in 62° 2' N., it is only 48-9°. At 

 times the temperature of the air also is, in consequence of this cooling in- 

 fluence, depressed from the Shetland Islands to the German coast. 



" The mild weather of the British Isles is well known. The mean tem- 

 perature for January at London is 37*4°; at Edinburgh the same ; at Dublin 

 40-5°. The farther we go from East to West or from South to North, or, 

 in other words, the nearer to the Gulf Stream, the higher we find the tem- 

 perature. At Unst, on one of the Shetland Islands, 560 miles North of 

 London, the mean temperature of the air for January is 40-3°, and that of 

 the sea even 45-5° (East Yell). 



" A drift current, therefore, is out of the question, else the temperature 

 of the air would be higher than that of the sea. Clearly, the warm current 

 of the sea is tempering the air, and not vice versa. The lowest temperature 

 observed in London is only —5° below zero ; at Penzance, on the West 

 coast, +24-1°; at Sandwick, on the Orkney Islands, -fl5-8°; and at 

 Bressay, on the Shetlands, -l-14-9°. At Madrid, +13-3° has been obsei-ved, 

 and 27 -5° even at Algiers, which provides Europe with the cauliflower in 

 winter. 



" While on the Western side of the North Atlantic Ocean the Polar Ice 

 reaches down to lat. 36° N. (the parallel of Gibraltar and Malta), and the 

 name of Labrador is suflQcient to characterize the climatic qualities of all 

 the land between 50° and 60° N., there extends on the East side of the 



