CLIMATE. 



83 



SO that by the time it has reached that bay the cold 

 is excessive, as in Siberia : its temperature, how- 

 ever, is a little increased in passing over the great 

 fresh water lakes, but it is still cold enough to ren- 

 der it proverbial for its keenness throughout the 

 United States. Passing over the gulf stream and the 

 Atlantic ocean, with increasing temperature, in pro- 

 portion to its distance from the continent, it causes 

 those short passages which vessels are known to 

 make from North America to Europe, and by the 

 time it arrives at Britain, it becomes very mild, and 

 is one cause why the Winters of that country, al- 

 though in lat. 50 deg. north, are less cold than those 

 of other countries in 40 deg. A part of this pheno- 

 mena Dr. B. attributes to the gulf stream, which 

 carries its heat far into the Atlantic, for when it 

 meets the northern current at the banks of New- 

 foundland, it is turned eastward, as is demonstrated 

 every year by its carrying the seeds of native vege- 

 tables of the West Indies, to the shores of the west- 

 ern islands of Scotland and other parts, and by the 

 current of warm water formed along the western 

 coast of Ireland and Scotland. 



As an additional cause of the cold of the United 

 States, Dr. Barnwell hints at the immense masses 

 of sea-ice, which are every Spring driven by the 

 polar winds, aided by currents in the same direc- 

 tion, along the coasts of Greenland, and from Davis's 

 and Hudson's straits, past Labrador and New- 

 foundland ; the influence of which is so great as to be 

 perceived to the southward of North Carolina, where 

 the north-east wind, iu the Spring, is observed to be 



