The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-02-08
THE METEOROLOGY AND CURRENTS OF
THE OCEAN.

| Ao1 MEL EVWULVGI AND CUR0kNIb VI
THE OCEAN.
~--~~--~~~-~>--~
Lecture In Providence by Professor Themp-
SON b. Maury-A Startling Physico- Historic
ParalleI-A Review Of tho Climatic Theory
| Of DIR. Carpenter, Of Ensland-Dr. Peter
mann's Views Upheld.
PROVIDENCE. r. l., Fen. !, 1872.
| A lecture on the highly important ana popular
| doctrine Of Oceanic Meteorology ana Circulation"
was delivered here to- might before the Franklin
Society and the Mechanics Association. by Pro-
lessor Thompson B. Maury. Our crowded space,
we regret, Will not permit US to give more than an
outline OF the lecture.
The lecturer commenced by saying The history
Of science. ike that OF nations often repeats ITSELF
1t Is now little more than century since Franklin
published his celebrated chart OF the Gulf Stream.
While Commissioner N London for the colonies his
attention had been called To II by the Boston mer-
chants. They had complained to the Lords OF the
Treasury that the Falmouth packets we're generally
fortnight longer to Boston tnan common traders
| were from London to Providence, r. l. This singu.
lar anomaly IN navigation he finally discovered was
accounted for by the simple fact that the Rhode
Island captains were acquainted with the Gulf
| Stream, while those OF the English packets were
not, and that the English kept In the stream and
were set back fifty or sixty miles day, while the
Americ an seamen avoided II altogether.
In the dvinely appointed order or creation the
waters Of the earth appeared before tne dry land,n
| and In the order OF physical inquiry
| THE PHYSICS OF TIE SEA
must first be clearly apprehended and positively
even integently investigate the physics OF the AIR.
We may sound It's depths With the Instruments Of
modern ingenuity, and measure the velocity and
puIsatons But Inc aerial ocean, 1S is ali ali "I IN
visible. We live at It's bottom. No aeronaut
has assembled to It's upper strata. We know by ac
movements tnan the condor or the Andes, soaring
ne aen Of we are
less animalcules the diatoms OF foramlnitera
sepng ID sne SHINY , caves 81 t9s , Aanc or Cape
above them until we reau the laws OF tne invisible
ether In the regular circulation or the visible waters
ofthe globe In word II we have not found out That
which Is seen how shall We explain the unseenY
am. therefore, compelled 70 deviate from your pro-
gramme and discuss tonight the circulation OF the
But in the very outset we arc met by the popular
theories OF the day. which utterly deny circulation
%shsies sr.eriess Cult Streams and is K"ro
Siwo5-nOt az coordinate parts IN o marvellous
piece OF created mechanism but as partial, frag
mentary ana purposeless-the merest dtsecta
AS the march Of civilization has been directed to the
extreme northwest OF the United Sales 1t has con.
unualy stumbled upon new discoveries OF a moro
generous soil and q more genial CLINE than the
most sanguine had ever dreamed Of Scarcely had
head waters OF the great Missouri on the eastern
slopes OF the Rocky Mountains, on the frontiers OF
Srsted srte 6ep' and the 'miid w, inter-
flourish IN winter IN II open aud almost snow.
less fields and enjoy perpetual pasture, while
ished vision OF the explorer the far valleys and
watersheds OF the Columbia River anu It's trlbuta-
ing northwestward to the Pacific. and already he.
coming an empire In ITSELF This great physco-hls-
Northwestern America, as we shall presently see,
10 maniesty due 10 the relations they both sustain
oyes n@ apo sea
their SOIL and TO the warm ocean currents which
After enumeraIing the theories OF oceanic circua.
tiol put forth by DIR. Carpenter and Mr.. Findlay,
Of England, Professor $50, n, Ma9ry proceeded TO show
Of the atoppage Of tue Gulf Stream DIT Ncwround.
Of Of %s
navy; ny the thermomeric records OF Commander
olhers lie demonstrated the fatal inconsistency
OF Mr.. Flndlay: first IN allowing that the "gene''
now as far as Newfoundland, while ne lett ont OF
view the lact that the ant-trade or southwest
Oh a neore man che
foundland, ana propel It towards England and
secona IN Ignoring suS Ss
Findlay) claims that they, and they alone produce
the warm climate OF England.
The speaker next showed that the climate Of
Hammersfest anu the North cape OF Norway was
50 warm In midwlnter that no instance is re-
corded Of the most n0rtherly Norwegian harDOrs
being frozen up, and the sane was true OF British
COLUMBIA and Southern Alaska; while In the sixth
century the Euxine sea had been closed to navga-
ton twice IN the annals OF Flanders; VINE was cut
with hatcnets and sold the lunp IN l7oS Ice mad
blocked the harb0r OF Copenhagen; In 1794
Pichegrus whole army had encamped on the
frozen Sea OF Holland. wnIe the zuyder Zee, the
HelespOnt ana even the Mediterranean ports OF
Marseilles aud Genoa had been
SEALED BY THE FROST KING
AS to the recently advanced notion OF one Of Mr..
Findlays converts IN this country that the tenpera-
ture Of the air controls that Of The and not
discovery OF the cold Peruvian current was quoted,
which proved conclusiyely that the atlnos-
S Srses colder I1an IN the same latitude out
side that cold ocean current Continental shores
when have the ocean 70 the wndwa W., Of them
warmed but only as these winds are vapor laden from
having previously passed over warm water surface
cesslve evaporation MeteoroIogc law shows that
storms follow IN the track OF hot water currents
and thus IL 10 found By the Cunard steamers that
areas OF low atmospheric pressure continually chase
each other IN their snip lane across the Atlantic
testing the extension Of the Gulf Stream to North
western Earope-are due the fearful delays
erpOOi to New York, sometimes, as In the
the luriously blowing southwest wind, which so
course. aud which Mr. Glaisher the aeronaut, had
observed nylng over England SO warm and moist
from the Gulf Stream exhalalion below, that he mad
called "
IAN AERIAL GULF STREAM"
Nothing could be more conclusive than was this
aerial gulf stream, which gave the ballOonist not
vapor bath, high up In the Clouds OF the real aque-
GUS Gulf stream 10 which u owed Its humidity ana
heat. The main argument was against DR.. Car
pcnters dogma that II the Gulf Stream was d.
verted through the sthmus Of Panama and Tehuanre-
pee English climate would not be impaired. Just as
rapidly as the equatorial water Of the Atlantic
- heated by the sun IL Is brushed or
Tasped away to the westward into the Ca.
rboean Sea and the Gull Of Mexico and the
removal or submergence OF lshmlan America, as
Herschel, Austed and others had suggested, would
certainly
water The consequence could only be that the
Gull stream would now In TO the Pacinc, and not
toward England. There could he but one result,
the reduction OF English temperature ana climate
to that Of Labrador or Northern Canada.
L n LIZ inaI tod I'm larxo