on tke Climate and Agricultur-e of the Britisli Inks. 55 
Tai!i,i.; A'I. 
1 )icembor. 
J.miinry. 
Felinmry. 
Yi ars. 
0 
o 
0 
48-0 
4g"3 
45-8 
4G-7 
12 
Cork 
42" 8 
43 '9 
44 '5 
43- 7 
111 
41-0 
39-6 
38-4 
39-7 
7 
45-2 
42-6 
44-9 
44-2 
21 
42-3 
41 -0 
41-1 
41 T) 
10 
39-8 
3t;-9 
38-7 
38-5 
50 
39-7 
37-4 
38-2 
38-4 
17 
Montptfllier 
45-7 
42-1 
44-8 
44-2 
11 
J'rom this table it .appears that during the three winter months 
Penzance has a temperature precisely the same as that of Moiit- 
])ellier ; Cork falls short of it bj only half a degree ; and the heat of 
the Scilly Isles exceeds this noted winter resort by 2|- degrees. 
At this season Edinburgh has the same amount of heat as 
Creenwich, although o50 miles further north ; and yet 200 miles 
lurther, at Orkney, the winter temperature exceeds that of Green- 
wich by one degree. But figures do not represent so vividly the 
geographical distribution of heat as lines of equal temperature ; 
and the accompanying sketch-map shows at a glance that our 
winter-warmth comes from the sea on the west. The lines 
cluster on our western coasts and truly represent the waves of 
heat which in winter sweep in from the Atlantic, each wave 
l)cing warmer than that which preceded it. For these lines 
ol equal temperature (isothermals) I am indebted to an excel- 
lent meteorological work by the Secretary of the Scottish Meteoro- 
logical Society, and 1 gladly avail myself of his description 
of the effect of the Gulf Stream on our winter temperature, 
as it confirms the opinion 1 so strongly expressed in an essay 
in the 11th volume of this Journal: — "The Gulf Stream 
leaves its impress unmistakablj' on the temperature of each of 
the months, as shown by the position of the monthly isothermals. 
In winter the deviation from their normal or east and west 
direction is greatest. Indeed, as regards Great Britain, the 
lines are then at right angles to this normal direction, and 
lie north and south. In Ireland they seem to envelop the 
island with their folds, which increase in warmth from the centre 
of the island outward to the ocean. This points out clearly that 
the great source of heat from which the climate of Great Britain 
derives its warmth is in the west ; in other words, it is regulated 
by the ocean." 
This winter warmth is first suffused along the western coast-line 
* ' A Handy -Book of Meteorology,' by Alexander Buchan, M.A. 
