68 
On the Temperature of the Sea, and its InJJuence 
as stock-farms, and such grain-crops only produced as may be 
necessary for the winter recjuirements of the cattle. 
There is also the debateable ground between these extremes, on 
which the farmer mainly suffers from the effects of climate. 
Here the wheat-crop is often pressed beyond its climatic limits ; 
in a hot and dry summer all goes well, but a cold July followed 
by a wet August rusts the stalk and withers the grain. I have 
often, as a surveyor, had to witness this lamentable loss of pro- 
duce, and have seen many an industrious, honest man, with a 
hard-working famil}', struggle on through poverty and suffering 
in a course of culture which nature forbids. It was a slow run 
down hill, a battle against climate, where defeat is certain. 
There are districts in the west where the course of culture has 
been gradually changed, and where stock-farming has now be- 
come general, and it has given an aspect of prosperous content- 
ment to the homesteads and the people. 
It has often been surmised, after a severe winter or a cool 
summer, that the unusual cold has resulted from the failing 
power of the Gulf Stream, or from an abundance of ice in the 
Atlantic, and a gloomy picture of the future has been drawn 
from the assumed gradual deterioration of the climate of these 
islands. It may be satisfactory to know that both history and 
science testify against such an apprehension. So far as history 
goes back into the past, we find the peculiarities of our climate 
the same as at present, as the following extract from Camden's 
' Britannia ' will show : — 
" Miuutius Foelix s;vitli, 'That Britaine tbougli in want other whiles the 
aspect of the fSunue, yet refreshed it is witli tlie warmth of the sea flowing 
round about it.' ' The seas,' quoth Cicere, ' stirred to and fro witli the winds, 
do so wax warme, that a man may easily joerceive within that world of waters 
there is inclosed certaine heat.' Tacitus says, ' Noextremitie there is of cold, — ■ 
the soile setting aside the olive and the vine, and the rest which are proper to 
warmer countries, taketh all kinds of gi-aine, and beareth it in abundance : it 
ripeueth slowly, but cometh up quickly, the cause of both is one and the 
same, to wit, the overmuch moisture of ground and aire.' " 
The great antiquity of the present ocean currents may be 
inferred from the amount of work which they have done in 
forming the Banks of Nevt'foundland, — the submarine moraine 
of the Arctic current. This current and its icebergs are the 
carriers which have brought the material from northern shores ; 
but, on coming in contact with the warm waters of the Gulf 
Stream, the yearly fleet of icebergs are melted and their cargoes 
dropped on the ocean's bed. But this additional quantity within 
the historic period is so comparatively small that no appreciable 
extent of surface has been added to their bulk. The Grand 
Bank has an area larger than Ireland, and its great depth may 
