REPORT ON THE KURO-SIWO, ETC. 369 



to the Arctic sea, or until that inertia was overcome by their friction against the continents ? 

 Yet this is not the case in either instance, for it has been well established by Mr. Bache that a 

 counter current, flowing to the southward and westward, intervenes between the Gulf Stream 

 and the coast of the United States as far as the peninsula of Florida ; and, as I have before 

 stated, as far as our observations extend, they prove conclusively that there is a very important 

 counter current intervening between the Kuro-Siwo and the main coast of Asia. 



The influence of the Kuro-Siwo upon the climates of Japan and the west coast of North 

 America is, as might be expected, as striking as that of the Gulf Stream on the coasts bordering 

 the north Atlantic. From the insular position of Japan, with the intervening sea between it 

 and the continent of Asia, it has a more equable climate than we enjoy in the United States ; 

 and since the counter current of the Kuro-Siwo does not make its appearance on the eastern 

 shores of the islands south of the straits of Sangar, and as these islands, in their geographical 

 position, have a more eastwardly direction than our coast, the Kuro-Siwo, unlike the Gulf 

 Stream, sweeps close along this shore, giving a milder climate to that portion of the empire 

 than is enjoyed in corresponding latitudes in the United States. 



The softening influence of the Kuro-Siwo is felt on the coasts of Oregon and California, but 

 in a less degree, perhaps, than that of the Gulf Stream on the coasts of Europe, owing to the 

 greater width of the Pacific ocean over the Atlantic. 



Still the winters are so mild in Puget's Sound, in latitude 48 degrees north, that snow rarely 

 falls there, and the inhabitants are never enabled to fill their ice-houses for the summer ; and 

 vessels trading to Petropaulowski and the coast of Kamtschatka, when becoming unwieldly from 

 accumulation of ice on their hulls and rigging, run over to a higher latitude on the American 

 coast and thaw out, in the same manner that vessels frozen up on our own coast retreat again 

 into the Gulf Stream until favored by an easterly wind. 



And in a late address before the American Geographical Society by Dr. Hawks, when speak- 

 ing of the routes for a railroad to connect the Atlantic States with the Pacific coast, cites the 

 remarks of Mr. Johnson and other eminent surveyors, to show that the precipitation of moisture 

 to the westward of the Eocky mountains, in Oregon Territory, is, with rare exceptions, in the 

 form of rain throughout the year, and seldom as snow ; and as the prevailing winds on that 

 coast are from the westward, they are unquestionably ameliorated by the warm waters of 

 the Kuro-Siwo, which, impinging upon the Aleutian islands, are thence thrown against the 

 shores of Oregon and California, and form the southerly current on those coasts, to again fall 

 into the great equatorial current of the Pacific. 



The whole of the Kuro-Siwo is not, however, obstructed by the Aleutian islands, for expe- 

 rience shows that there is a current flowing to the northward through Behring's Straits, which 

 is no doubt derived from this stream. This is, perhaps, underlaid by an arctic current flowing 

 to the southward, which, rising to the surface after passing the narrow defile of the straits, 

 supplies the counter current to the Kuro-Siwo before spoken of. 



In studying this subject, in connexion with others having a bearing upon it, the hypothesis 

 has forced itself upon my mind, that that portion of the Kuro-Siwo which finds an outlet into 

 the Arctic ocean through Behring's Straits, continues its course to the northward and eastward, 

 after clearing Icy Cape, and is the cause of that open sea, with its high temperature, seen to the 

 northward of Greenland by Dr. Kane ; and from the unity of its flow in a given path, it leaves 

 the vast fields of ice lying to the southward and eastward, between that path and the north 



47 s 



