INFLUENCE OF THE GULF-STREAM ON CLIMATES. 61 



and even crops of barley reward the labours of the husbandman, 

 and the frightful wildernesses on the shores of Hudson's Straits! 

 — and yet both are situated under the same latitude of 62°. 



The milder winter and earlier spring which characterise the 

 ■north-west coast of Europe, are due, in some measure, to the 

 prevailing westerly winds ; but there can be no doubt that they 

 are mainly owing to the influence of the Gulf-stream, which, as 

 we have seen, conveys the heated waters of the Mexican Gulf 

 far to the north-east, and thus imparts warmth to the climate 

 •of our native isle. In both seas, on the contrary, which bound 

 the peninsula or island of Greenland, icy currents descend, and 

 continue their course to the south, along the coasts of North 

 America. Near Newfoundland their temperature, in May, is 

 found to be 14° lower than that of the air, and even in spring 

 -and the early summer they carry along with them immense ice- 

 blocks, which are frequently drifted as far south as the latitude 

 -of New York, and finally disappear in the Gulf-stream. 



It is evident that the cold of winter must be increased, and 

 the spring retarded along the North American coasts by these 

 •cold streams, just as the coasts of Europe are favoured by 

 streams of a contrary nature ; and thus the ocean-currents go a 

 rgreat way to explain the remarkable differences of climate 

 between the opposite shores of the Northern Atlantic. 



On this occasion I cannot omit directing the reader's atten- 

 tion to the influence which the far-distant barrier of Central 

 America has upon the climate of Great Britain. Supposing yon 

 narrow belt of land to be suddenly whelmed under the ocean, 

 then instead of circuitously winding round the Gulf of Mexico, 

 the heated waters of the equatorial current would naturally 

 flow into the Pacific, and the Gulf-stream no longer exist. We 

 should not only lose the benefit of its warm current, but cold 

 polar streams, descending farther to the south would take its 

 place, and be ultimately driven by the westerly winds against 

 ■our coasts. Our climate would then resemble that of New- 

 foundland, and our ports be blocked up during many months, 

 by enormous masses of ice. Under these altered circumstances, 

 England would no longer be the grand emporium of trade and 

 industry, and would finally dwindle down from her imperial 

 -station to an insignificant dependency of some other country 

 more favoured by Nature. 



