THE SCIENCE OF A SNOW-FLAKE. 
55 
Ireland, and of Cornwall, the sea is some ten degrees warmer 
than the land. Hence it is that snow is rare in those parts, and 
that it seldom lies upon the ground many hours. The warm air 
coming with the Grulf stream spreads over the United Kingdom, 
and mitigates that severity of winter which belongs to our 
latitude. 
•Let the Grulf stream be interrupted, and the conditions of the 
G-lacial epoch would be renewed. If Plato’s dream of a New 
Atlantis were realised, and a tract of land should arise out of 
the ocean between us and America, cutting off the warm waters 
of the Gfulf ; Snowdon and Ben Lomond would have an ever- 
lasting diadem of snow, and the glazier would again move, in 
its cold but solemn grandeur, down the valleys, where now the 
rose and the lily find a genial home. 
