182 
A VOYAGE TO SPITZBERGEN. 
increased to 64° F. at a depth of 600 fathoms. These 
facts indicate the southward flow of a vast body of 
warm water. It cannot be said that the heat is de¬ 
rived from the Gulf Stream, because nowhere in its 
course, even in such latitudes as 50° or 60°, does it 
acquire so high a temperature, even at the surface ; 
and it is highly improbable that the general warmth 
of the ocean along the west coasts of North Europe,, 
on the shores of Norway, could possibly be supplied 
by the limited body of warm water which leaves the 
Gulf of Florida. If the whole of the Gulf Stream 
water were spread over the warm-water area in the 
north, its depth, even allowing the most liberal esti¬ 
mate for its volume, would not exceed ten fathoms ; 
whereas warm water of 42° F. occurs to the depth 
of 400 fathoms in this region, and north of Spitz- 
bergen it is found as high as 64° F. at 600 fathoms. 
If it be said that this temperature is due to the north¬ 
ward drifting of the Atlantic from warmer localities* 
we are met by two difficulties, of which one is, that 
the soundings obtained by Carpenter and others gave 
temperatures much below 64°, and the other is, that 
the waters flow south, not north. Volcanic action, or 
a warm mineral spring rising from the ocean-bottom, 
may by some be imagined to be the cause of the tem¬ 
perature of 64°; but there is no evidence of either of 
