154 



ISLAND LIFE 



PART I 



changed by slight alterations in the outline of the land, 

 while they may be barred out altogether by other alterations 

 of not very great amount ; but such changes as these have 

 no relation to the alteration of climates caused by the 

 changing phases of precession. 



Now, the existence at the present time of an ice-clad 

 Greenland is an anomaly in the northern hemisphere, only 

 to be explained by the fact that cold currents from the 

 polar area flow down both sides of it. In Eastern Asia we 

 have the lofty Stanivoi Mountains in the same latitude as 

 the southern part of Greenland, which, though their 

 summits are covered with perpetual snow, give rise to no 

 ice-sheet, and, apparently, even to no important glaciers ; 

 — a fact undoubtedly connected with the warm Japan 

 current flowing partially into the Sea of Okhotsk. So in 

 North-west America we have the lofty coast range, culmi- 

 nating in Mt. St. Elias, nearly 15,000 feet high, and an 

 extensive tract of high land to the north and north-west, 

 with glaciers comparable in size with those of New Zealand, 

 although situated in Lat. 60° instead of in Lat. 45°. Here, 

 too, we have the main body of the Japan current turning 

 east and south, and thus producing a mild climate, little 

 inferior to that of Norway, warmed by the Gulf Stream. 

 We thus have it made clear that could the two Arctic 

 currents be diverted from Greenland, that country would 

 become free from ice, and might even be completely forest- 

 clad and inhabitable; while, if the Japan current were to 

 be diverted from the coast of North America and a cold 

 current come out of Behring's Strait, the entire north- 

 western extremity of America would even now become 

 buried in ice. 



Now it is the opinion of the best American geologists 

 that during the height of the glacial epoch North-eastern 

 America was considerably elevated.^ This elevation would 

 bring the wide area of the banks of Newfoundland far 

 above water, causing the American coast to stretch out in 

 an immense curve to a point more than 600 miles east of 

 Halifax ; and this would certainly divert much of the 

 greatly reduced Gulf Stream straight across to the coast of 



1 Dana's Manual of Geology, 2nd Edition, p. 540. 



