1G2 PROF, E. HULL, LL.D., P.E.S., r.G.S., ON 



Equator tban south of the line ; consequently a larger proportion 

 ■of water is diverted northwards at Cape S. Roque than would be 

 the case if the stream were accurately equatorial. 



If, however, Arctic conditions were to prevail in the J^orth 

 Atlantic, these conditions would be reversed, and a much larger 

 amount of heated water would be diverted into the Brazilian current 

 flowing southwai'ds, than is at present the case, and the North 

 Atlantic would receive less than its due share. This would not 

 only lessen the amount of heat available for raising the temperature 

 of the northern regions, but would also diminish the resistance 

 that would be offered to cold currents from the Arctic Ocean ; a 

 point which receives increased importance from the consideration 

 of possible changes in the Pacific area. 



For there is another fact which can scarcely be said to be less 

 than paradoxical in its character, that at the time when Northern 

 Europe and Eastern North Amei'ica were enduring a climate of 

 exceptional rigour, Siberia and Western North America were 

 ■enjoying a compai'atively temperate climate. Somehow or other, 

 therefore, warmth must have been able to find its way into the 

 Arctic regions in that hemisphere at the same time that it was 

 excluded from the European area. Now at the present day 

 Behring Straits are narrow and shallow, and little or no water is 

 able to enter from the Pacific equatorial current. But with the 

 exception of the mountains to the south of Alaska, the land 

 bordering the strait is, generally speaking, low and alluvial. If 

 then this were depressed, a large free access would be opened to 

 the Ai'ctic Ocean on that side ; and if this were the case I do not 

 think it unreasonable to suppose that a stronger and more highly 

 heated current would pass through than is found in the Gulf 

 Stream, inasmuch as the Pacific is larger than the Atlantic, and 

 the northward flowing stream would not have to contend with any 

 counter-flowing current, all the water finding its exit by way of 

 the Atlantic channel. It is obvious that by the time the water had 

 reached the Scandinavian coast it would have lost all its heat, and 

 would very largely contribute to further reduce the temperature 

 in the North Atlantic area ; and being comparatively unopposed 

 in its southward course, and pressed forward by the floods from 

 the Pacific, it would probably develope a force far exceeding that 

 of the existing Greenland current ; a force that Avould be sufficient 

 in fact to produce those perplexing glacial markings in Scandinavia 

 and elsewhere which Mr. Lindvall has ascribed with much prob- 



