CLIMATE AND CHANGES. 



Ixxxiii 



Now — May 21, 1906 — to date, as these sheets are going through 

 the press, our late spring and " early summer " is again sub-Arctic 

 almost in conditions. If what we read in the daily press can be 

 credited at all, the references to the ice in the Atlantic and the 

 " reverse of the direction of the main flow of the Gulf Stream " are 

 sufficiently disquieting. But whether these reports be true or not, 

 the facts remain that there are conditions at present holding 

 throughout the British Isles which warrant some belief in their 

 veracity, apart from the other actual scientific records and facts 

 which are (or have been) afforded by the U.S. monthly ice-charts of 

 past years and the logs of ocean-going Atlantic vessels. At all 

 events, I desire in this place to draw attention to these statements 

 in continuation of remarks I have before made in my last volume of 

 this series, under the chapter headed " Climate and Time " in the 

 introduction, and also especially under the article " Woodcock " in 

 the body of that volume ; and to invite the attention of careful 

 readers also to a few facts which I give again under the same 

 species, especially Woodcock, in this volume. These statements may 

 be considered by each reader for himself. For my part, I shall be 

 delighted to have them scientifically confuted, as, so long as I do 

 live in Great Britain, I prefer a more temperate climate to be in- 

 dicated by the thermometer. 



Without greater experience, I may well hesitate to enter in 

 where " angels fear to tread," but surely there is something worthy 

 of study by those who have the opportunities of doing so, and of 

 these extraordinary seasons we have lately experienced. With some 

 such belief, I have consulted one who is letter able to express ivliat I 

 mean than I can pretend to he myself. The following, which I quote 

 from a letter received from Mr. Stephen Burrows, of date June 22, 

 1906, may prove of interest to some readers. He writes : — 



"The accumulated weight of snow and ice at the South Pole causes 

 an alteration of the centre of gravity, or a change of the axis of the earth. 

 This might change the ocean currents, including the Gulf Stream. Ice- 

 bergs also appearing in the Atlantic would change the climate of the British 

 Isles. I think it was about three or four years ago that icebergs had thus 

 affected the climate. ^ Mount Pelee, Vesuvius, and Fusiama are in about the 

 same latitude. The tropic of Cancer runs along this line. The weak line 



^ See my remarks under the same subject in the last volume of this series, 

 dating 1904.— J. A. H.-B. 



