Currents of the Southern and Pacific Oceans. 299 
cribes a reduced temperature to the sea on all banks and shal- 
lows. If the ocean was devoid of currents, I think we might 
expect an increase of temperature on shoals in summer, or in 
warm latitudes, and a reduction of temperature in winter. A 
friend who made a full set of observations in crossing the Atlan- 
tic, informs me that on arriving at soundings in the English Chan- 
nel, he found an increase of 2° in the temperature of the waters.* 
Perhaps I may be allowed to refer, fora moment, to the geo- 
logical agencies of the polar currents. It is well known that 
extensive fields and packs of ice, including many icebergs of 
vast magnitude, are constantly carried by the polar currents to- 
wards the lower latitudes. On reaching certain regions, such as 
the banks of Newfoundland and the Lagullas of Southern Af- 
rica, the ice is brought into proximity or contact with the warm 
counter-currents of the system, which flow from the torrid zone, 
where the ice is soon dissolved. The numerous masses of earth, 
rocks, beach bowlders, and sedimentary matter, which are borne 
by the ice in great profusion from the cliffs, the shores and the 
sea-bottom of the Arctic regions, and probably also from the Ant- 
arctic, are thus added continually to the vast submarine deposits 
which there accumulate. May not the continuance of this trans- 
porting process, through a long series of ages, be deemed suffi- 
cient to account for the existence and present extent of the great 
banks referred to; without particular reference to the evidence 
of successive elevations and subsidences, in extensive areas of the 
earth’s crust ? 
CURRENTS OF THE SQUTHERN AND PACIFIC OCEANS, 
That the currents of the Atlantic Ocean are connected with, 
and form an. extension of those of the Indian and Southern oceans, 
has been proved by the researches of Rennel and others. Hence 
it follows, that the drain of these currents must be compensated 
by other currents which pass from the Atlantic to those seas, by 
some unknown or unexplored route, currents which move either 
at the surface or at lower depths. If these compensating currents 
exist at the surface, as is quite probable, on what meridians of the 
extreme South Atlantic are they to be found ?+ 
* George W. Blunt, Esq. 
+ The consideration of the connection of the currents of the North Atlantic and 
the Arctic seas with those of the North Pacific, through Bhering’s Strait, has been 
purposely omitted, as being less important in a general view, and beyond the ex- 
pected range of observation by the expedition. 
