60.2 



Dr. W. B. Carpenter on the 



[June 13, 



the case, will be more fittingly pointed out hereafter (§§ 139-142). 

 At present I venture to think that I have made it evident that the real 

 influence of the Gulf-stream upon the Thermal condition of the North 

 Atlantic must be determined in some other way than by a theoretical 

 computation of " units of heat," for which no truly reliable data can be 

 said to exist. It is from the position and course of the Isothermal 

 Lines, which have now been laid down over its whole area for different 

 seasons on the basis of a large number of observations, that we derive 

 our surest information as to the actual effect produced on the surface- 

 temperature of the Mid-Atlantic by the transfer of water in the Gulf- 

 stream from the Intertropical to the Temperate zone, and as to the 

 course and amount of the further movement whereby the water of the 

 Temperate zone is carried towards the Polar area. — This is the method of 

 investigation which has been followed by Dr. Petermann in his recent very 

 important Memoir on " The Gulf-stream, and our knowledge of the 

 Thermal condition of the North Atlantic Ocean and its Continental 

 Borders, up to 18/0 " * ; and it will be found that however much I may 

 seem to differ from him in refusing to the " Gulf-stream " any impor- 

 tant share in the amelioration of the Climate of the British Islands, 

 and of the regions lying to the north of them, the difference is more verbal 

 than real. 



106. Dr. Petermann' s view will be best expressed in his own 

 words : — 



"My own ideas, in 1865, of the extent and of the immense volume of 

 " the Gulf-stream, I expressed as follows (Mittheilungen, pp. 150 et 

 " seq.) : — f Instead of a weak and insignificant drift from Newfoundland 

 " ' toward Europe, as heretofore represented, I consider the northern part 

 " ' of the Gulf-stream one of the mightiest currents in the world, although 

 " * comparatively but slow, not very perceptible on the surface of the 

 " * ocean, and therefore of no great moment to navigation. I do so, be- 

 " ( cause Ocean-Currents have to perform yet other functions than those of 

 " ' a strong surface-stream. In that view I conceive the Gulf-stream 

 " ' to be a deep permanently warm current from Newfoundland to the 

 " f coasts of France, Great Britain, Scandinavia, and Iceland, up to Bear 

 " ' Island, Jan Mayen, and Spitzbergen ; and along the western coast of 

 " \ the latter up to the 80th degree of N. Lat., thence to Nova Zembla into 

 <£ s the Polar Sea, passing the northernmost capes of Siberia and the New 

 " ' Siberian Islands, where it appears on the charts as the Polynja of the 

 " ' Russians, discovered by Hedenstrom sixty years ago, and fully corro- 

 " ' borated by Wrangell and Anjou, its influence being felt perceptibly 



* ' Geographische Mittheilungen,' 1870, pp. 201-272. — A translation of this Memoir, 

 with supplemental Notes, and other subsequent Papers in the ' Mittheilungen,' has been 

 . issued by the Hydrographic Office of the United States ; and of this translation I have 

 freely availed myself, — referring, however, to the original wherever I had reason to 

 suspect that the meaning was inaccurately or imperfectly expressed. 



