1872.] 



1 Shearwater 3 Scientific Researches. 



597 



94. The general acceptance of the doctrine of the uniform Deep-Sea 

 Temperature of 39°, based on the observations of Sir James Ross, and 

 sanctioned by the authority of Sir J. Herschel, caused the earlier doctrine of 

 Humboldt and Pouillet (§ 18) to be lost sight of, until it was brought again 

 into notice by the more trustworthy observations recently made with Ther- 

 mometers 'protected' against the effects of pressure (§ 10). 



95. The views of Sir John Herschel and others in regard to the non- 

 extension of the Gulf-stream as such into the Polar area, were warmly 

 contested twenty years ago by Dr. Petermann ; who, in a letter addressed 

 to Sir Francis Beaufort (then Hydrographer to the Admiralty *), explicitly 

 asserted, on the basis of Temperature-observations, that the influence of 

 the Gulf-stream extends from Newfoundland along the north coast of 

 Europe and Asia, as far as Cape Jakan, in the vicinity of Behring's 

 Strait. And this doctrine he has since urged in several successive Me- 

 moirs in the ' Geographische Mittheilungen with the addition that he 

 now regards as a branch of the Gulf-stream a current of warm water which 

 passes up the east side of Davis's Straits, and which is traceable as far as 

 Smith's Sound. — But, as will presently appear (§ 106), Dr. Petermann uses 

 the term " Gulf-stream " in a sense very different from that in which it is 

 ordinarily employed in this country. 



96. On the other hand, Mr. A. G. Findlay, in a Paper on the Gulf- 

 stream presented to the Royal Geographical Society, Feb. 8, 1869, essayed 

 to prove — on the basis of the data supplied by the operations of the 

 United States Coast Survey as to the rate, volume, and temperature of the 

 Gulf-stream in its passage through the Florida Channel, and by the changes 

 in these three conditions which it undergoes during its course as far as 

 the Banks of Newfoundland, — that after encountering the Arctic Current 

 on the Banks of Newfoundland, the Gulf-stream loses all its original cha- 

 racters, and can no longer be distinguished from the general North-easterly 

 drift of the North Atlantic ; and that our mild climate, being in no way 

 dependent on its influence, is to be accounted for as follows : — " The great 

 " belt of Anti-trade or passage winds which surround the globe northward 

 " of the Tropics, passing to the north-eastward, or from some point to the 

 " southward of west, passes over the entire area of the North Atlantic, and 

 " drifts the whole surface of that ocean towards the shores of Northern 

 " Europe and into the Arctic basin, infusing into high latitudes the tempe- 

 " rature and moisture of much lower parallels ; and this alone would be 

 " sufficient to account for all changes in climate by their variations, with- 

 " out any reference whatever to the Gulf-stream." 



97. The views of Mr. Findlay as to the limited agency of the Gulf- 



Current system kept up by the action of Winds on the surface), has already been 

 shown (§ 37). 



* " Further Correspondence and Proceedings connected with the Arctic Expedition," 

 Parliamentary Blue Book.. 1852, pp. 142 et seq. 



