200 CURRENTS OF THE SEA. 



the water is, according to Humboldt, at 22 0, 5 C, 

 (72°-5 F.) within, and 17°'5 C. (63°*5 F.) without 

 the stream. 



A great part of this warm water is carried, 

 partly by its own motion, but chiefly by the pre- 

 vailing west and north-west winds, towards the 

 coasts of Europe/* and even beyond Spitzbergen 

 and Nova-Zembla; and thus a part of the heat 

 of the south reaches far into the Arctic Ocean. 

 Hence, on the north coast of the old continent, 

 we always find drift-wood from the southern 

 regions, and on this side, the Arctic Ocean remains 

 free from ice during a great part of the year, even 

 as far up as 80° north latitude; while on the 

 opposite coast (of Greenland) the ice is not quite 

 thawed even in summer. In the two seas that 

 bound this latter peninsula, a current of cold 

 water is found running from north to south; it 

 has been traced as far as Spitzbergen on the 

 eastern side of Greenland, and up to Barrow's 

 Straits in Baffin's Bay. These two currents 

 form the only outflow of water from the Arctic 

 Ocean that can be perceived at the surface. The 



* It has twice happened, in the years 1682 and 1684, 

 that Esquimaux, driven by storms from their own coasts, 

 have been carried by these easterly currents, in their 

 wretched seal-skin boats, to the Orkney Islands. 



