428 OBSERVATIONS ON THE CURRENTS. 



Ocean, along the Norwegian coast, cultivated land up to 71° N., the 

 Northernmost land of the world in which, under the influence of the Gulf 

 Stream, agriculture is the main occupation of the inhabitants. Wheat is 

 grown up to Inderoen, in lat. 64° N. ; barley up to Alten, in 70° N., where 

 sowing generally is done between the 20th and 25th of June, yielding in 

 the short space of eight weeks, to the 20th or 30th of August, on the 

 average six or seven fold ; the potato yields, at the same place, on the 

 average, seven or eight fold — in favourable seasons, even twelve to fifteen 

 fold ; it thrives on the coast as far to the East as Vadso, on the Russian 

 boundary line. At Alten (70° N.) relishable cauliflower is raised even 

 in less favourable summers." 



(421.) On the vexed question of the influence of the sea on the Climate 

 of the British Isles much cannot be said here. In an essay, by Mr. Nicholas 

 Whitley, C.E,,* he arrives at this conclusion respecting it: — " Our S.W. 

 wind has its birthplace where the temperature of the sea is at least 55*^ 

 in January, causing the thermometer on the Cornish coast, under its in- 

 fluence, to stand steadily at 52°, and the great warmth of the past winter 

 resulted from the continued persistency of this wind rather than from any 

 excess of heat inthe sea. 



"The S.W. wind gives to Penzance a mean winter temperature of 44'^, 

 being the same as that of Montpellier ; Cork falls short of it by only half a 

 degree ; and the mean temperature of the Scilly Isles at this season exceeds 

 that of this noted winter resort by 2|-°." 



In a farther examination of the log-books of the Cunard steamers, sail- 

 ing between Liverpool and New York, for a period of five years, which 

 results have been carefully tabulated, he says, " The extent and greatest 

 intensity of the Arctic Current is shai-ply shown by the thermometer in 

 every voyage. The cold water on the Banks of Newfoundland reaches its 

 mean monthly minimum of 30° in January, and its mean maximum of 52° 

 in September, and its width is fully 400 British miles. 



"On the Eastern side of the cold current, and in close proximity to it, 

 there is a bed of very warm water, having a mean temperature in January 

 of 57°, being 27° warmer than that on the Banks, over a width of about 

 200 miles. This appears to be a strong eddy of the Gulf Stream, curving 

 Northward, and holding the Arctic Current in its warm embrace. 



" From this part of the sea to near the Irish coast the warmth is more 

 equally distributed through the water, and the thermometer does not 

 detect any well-defined branch of the Gulf Stream flowing to the N.E. 

 There is, however, a decided rise in the temperature about the middle oi 

 the North Atlantic Ocean, amounting to from 4° to 6° above that of the 

 sea at Scilly, and the figures on the chart appear to indicate that it lies in 

 a S.W. and N.E. direction. It is most probably the drift of the Gulf 

 Stream driven to the N.E. by the prevailing S.W. wind. 



" The means represented in the Table show that East of the cold water 

 of the Newfoundland Banks (the Polar Stream, which has there a width 

 of 400 miles, and a temperature in January of 30°, and in September of 52°), 

 there is a warm bed of water, 200 miles in width, with a temperature of 



• See Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. xiii., 1869, page 229, et seq. 



