The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1872-01-27
creases in width, diminishes In depth, and
loses velocity. From three and a halt, knots
an bour, which it had in the Florida chan
mel, it has come down off Cape Hatteras to
two, and of Sandy Hook, N. Y, it is about

about 14O miles; off Cape Hatteras, $50 and
oil Nantucket, 40, according to the coast
survey reports.
This seven-tenths Of knot an hour is rs
against one knot of Nantucket. But how
rapid the decrease is afterward we do not
| know. Beyond this point we have no rela-
bic observations, and, in fact, we are as lgno-
rant of exactly where the Gulf Stream ends
as Of where it begins DR.. James Stork, In
an admirable paper published in the Naut.-
cal Magazine for 1859, states as follows ::
" No facts known to me trace the heated wa
ters Of the Gulf Stream further east than
west longitude 80 degrees. And here they
are only met with as heated water, spread
ing out without almost any perceptible cur
rent" If he had substituted west longitude
40 degrees for 80 degrees, he would proba-
bly, have been nearer the mark. - ...-.. .
1t is an error, and one into which many
persons have been led through lack OF IA
miliarity with facts, to suppose that the Gulf
Stream sends off branch from It's northern
limit to the Arctic ocean, or even, as we shall
presently have occasion to show, that at
touches any part Of the coasts Of Europe. AS
a definite current, it is completely lost In
mid-ocean; and indeed it is this very point,
or rather the thermal questions involved
therein, that has inspired this article.
To the Gulf Stream is assigned a great
deal that does not belong to it; and we think
we have shown that there is, to begin with,
no cause for assuming that it is prolonged in
definitely, but, on the contrary, have demon
strated that it is not by such proofs as we
found available to that end. The simple
truth Of the matter is, the Gulf Stream is
made use of to account for whatever phe-
nomena of our watery world and aerial
space cannot be accounted for otherwise-a
circumstance due partly to q lack of observa-
tions, which is natural enough since scien-
titic exploration is yet in its infancy, and
partly to lamentable poverty of invention,
which is not usually the fault of theorists.
Among these questions in which the Gulf
Stream is held accountable is the climate of
the North Atlantic region. Now, we claim
that there are no facts to show that the Gulf
Stream has any influence upon the climate OF
the North Atlantic region whatever. Its
waters are to those Of the great body of the
North Atlantic basin as the insignificant
rivulet running through farm is to the farm
itself, and its effect upon the temperature not
greater.
Its alleged effect upon the climate of the
British Isles, and on Norway, Portugal, and
Spain, is as remote from the truth as its al
legged effect upon the climate of Newport.
In relation to this matter DR.. Stork, whom
we have had occasion to quote before, makes
the following observations in referring to his
experiments upon the temperatures of the
air and sea about the islands and coasts Of
Scotland 'This whole investigation" says
DR.. Stork, "leads to the conclusion-indeed
seems to me to prove-that the climate of
Britain is in no respect influenced by the
heated waters of the Gulf Stream, which do
not approach our island within thousands Of
miles. 1t also confirms the conclusion that
the mildness Of the winters in Britain is
chiefly due to the southwest or anti-trade
winds, which are the prevalent aerial cur
rents in this latitude during winter"; and
this conclusion is confirmed by the observa:
tons of Professor James Glaisher, f. R. S.,
chief of the meteorological department OF
the Greenwich Observatory.
The Gulf Stream does not reach Britain !:
bat even where it does reach, and is best
known and most frequently traversed, its Wa
ters have no apprcciable effect upon the at
moSphcre even in passing over it. And this
is in obedience to q general law of nature
| which may be thus briefly stated: Air when
| unconfined receives no perceptible accession
of heat from water.
Applying this to the air above and the Wa
ters beneath throughout the globe, we can
truly say that the air is the general giver, but
is not Il receiver, Of heat. 1t gives tempeMa
lures high and low to all and everything it
touches. Water speedily assumes the tem-
pelatllre Of the air above it. A warm wind
heats it, a cold wind freezes it; but, on the
other hand, it must be observed that cold
water does not chill the air nor does warm
water heat it. The air which sets the water
of the sea in motion throughout the globe,
that grand circulating system whose infu-
! ences are so bcneficent, likewise imparts to it
the heat with which it sustains the life of its
inhabitants, or changing its heat, drives them
to seek more congcnial quarters; all OF
which is susceptible Of proof.
It is not, however, to the influence Of the
| ice upon the water in which it floats that we
wish to call attention; our concern Is only
with the air, our purpose being to show that
the air which floats upon the earth receives
neither heat nor cold from the surface wa
| ter, but, OH the contrary, imparts to 1t what
| ever heat or cold it may have.
| a simple experiment will show our mean
| ing more clearly: July 9Th, with the tempe
rature of the air at 50 degrees, the water OF
stream into which we inserted our ther-
mometer was &c degrees. On the following
morning at 4h. 30m. the air had fallen to 10
degrees, the stream to "a degrees. At the
same time, however, rain water in tank was
exactly that of the air-nameiy, 10 degrees.
The water in ncighboring well fifteen feet
deep was 81 degrees, only degrees greater
than its lowest temperature of mid-winter.
If this relation Of air and water were bet
| ter understood-if theorists would only rea-
son from the proven fact that the air deter
mines the temperature Of water in contact
with it, and cannot therefore be violently
disturbed by tive would not have any
body to slander the Gulf Stream by calling it
q "storm-breeder," or anybody to believe
such an assertion with respect to its paternal
! disposition nor would anybody have con-
ceiyed the idea that the Gulf Stream modi-
fies the climate of Western Europe.
From the Journal Of the Scottish Me
teoroloncal Society for 1865 we extract the
! following: "The maximum temperature (of
the air) occurs about p. NJ. and the mini
| mum about 8 A. M. (at Harris, Scotland.)
Since the maximum and minimum tempera-
| lures of the sea occur respectively at K.
NJ. and $50 A. NJ, it follows that the ex-
IRENE temperatures of the sea occur from
one hour to two and a half hours later than
| those Of the air." - @".
In this same journal it is further recorded
that the sea "about the 21st of May and the
10th of November is about the mean of the
wear, or 4S.9 degrees. The mean tempera-
ture of the air occurs about the beginning OF
NAV and middle of October" From which
it will be seen that the temperature Of the
air is in its fluctuations invariably in advance
of the sea, and that the former controls the
latter. Could indeed any proof be more
conclusive of the correctness of the PROPOSE
tions with which we set out-namely, that