Physics and Chemistry. 121 
municating its heat to the air either by — or by contac 
If the stream was only about 40 or 50 miles in breadth, the aerial 
particles in their passage across it woul <n be in contact with 
warm water more than an hour or two. deg the number of the 
particles in contact with the water, owing to the narrowness of 
he 
stream and increase its area, the e we increase its radiating 
surface; and the greater the seca surface, the greater is the 
quantity of heat thrown o ut this is not all; the number of 
aérial particles ba by radiation increases in proportion to the 
which the waters o the Guile stream are spread, the more effectual © 
will the stream be as a heating-agent. And, ie ge . order that 
a very wide area of the Atlantic may be covered with the warm 
waters of the stream, slowness of motion is essenti sk ¥m 
The are of heat conveyed by the Gulfstream, as we have 
seen, is equal to all the heat received from the sun by 3,121,870 
square miles at the equator. Mr. Findlay, however, as has been 
stated, thinks that I have doubled the actual volume of the stream. 
received from the sun by 2,062,960 square miles of the temperate 
regions. The total area of ‘the Atlantic from the latitude of the 
8,500,000 square miles. In this case the quantity of heat carried 
by the Gulfstream into the Atlantic through the Straits of Florida, 
to that received by this entire area from the sun, is as 1 to 4°12 
or in map Soleo umbers as 1 e oh ‘It therefore follows that one-fifth 
of all the heat possessed by the waters of the Atlantic over that 
area, even in rr fi absorb every ray that falls u = 
them, is ee Gulf'stre ream. Would th ‘ 
question the ane? 8 the Gulfstream be willing to admit that 
a decrease of one-fourth in the total amount of heat received from 
of the tropical zone up to the arctic region, would not sensibly 
affect the climate of } forthe Europe? If the ey would not w 
ingly admit this, why, then, contend that the Gulfstream does not 
aft climate? for the stoppage of the Gulfstream, taking it at 
indlay’s estimate, would deprive the Atlantic of 77,479,650, 
006, 000,000,000 foot-pounds of energy in the form of heat per ‘day, 
a a quantity equal to one-fourth of all the heat received from the 
* See Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, vol. ix. 
¥ 
