GULF STEEAM— TEMPEEATUEE. 7 



region is only 9°. Throughout the basin between Scotland, Norway, Iceland, and 

 Spitzbergen tlie surface waters are from 2° to 5° warmer than the surrounding 

 atmosphere, the proportion being reversed only in summer, when the temperature 

 of the atmosphere is slightly higher. The hot air is then tempered by the sea, 

 the reverse being the case throughout the rest of the year. 



So great is the general influence exercised by the main current of warm waters 

 on the climate of the European continent, and especially of the lands encircled by 

 it, that it alone renders the British Isles and Scandinavia inhabitable. Like 

 another Labrador, this region would remain the abode of wild animals, maintaining 

 with difjticulty a few scattered communities on the banks of the sheltered creeks. 



Fig. 3. — IsoTHEKMAL LixEs, NorthEast Atlaxtic. in Januaky. 

 According tu Mohn. Scale 1 : 28,000,000. 



4-, '^"o o o •P»^Ç> . 



500 Miles. 



It IS the southern current acting in concert with the south-west winds that has 

 enabled the English race to rise and develop. Hence it has played a chief part in 

 the modern history of mankind. 



The deflection of the isothermal lines caused by the currents of air and water 

 in the North Atlantic is the mosi remarkable phenomenon of the kind on the 

 whole surface of the globe. In many places the importance of the latitudes for 

 the local climate seems to be completely neutralised, the mean temperature rising 

 not from north to south, but from south to north. This is due to the southern 

 waters bringing with them the tropical heat, and discharging it in the regions 

 of Northern Europe. A climate conveyed northwards by the current thus overlaps 



