The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1872-01-27
9irIrmond 1ispatcll.
SATURDAY.. JANUARY 81, 1879
BE- THE CIRCULATION OF THE DIS
PATCH Is LARGER THAN THE COMBINED
CIRCULATION OF ALL THE OTHER DAILY
NEWSPAPERS OF THE CITY.
The Influence OF the Gulf Stream upon
the Climate OF Europe.
907 THIRTEENTH STREET,
" AsrIINGTOS, ID, c.. Jan. "a. 1921


WAsHlSGToS, d. c., Jan. "a, 1S12.S
Editors OF The Richmond Dispatch:
Dear Sirs,-A friend sends me the Dtspatc',
Of the 18th instant, containing what purports
TO he q quotation from the late lecture of
Captain Bent, of st. Louis. The so-called
quotation is borrowed from the Washington
Patriot, who has made a very "silly" and
mutilatcd quotation Of the same from the
New York Times; and I am surprised to see
in Virginia paper such rude criticism OF
a theory which your contributor had neither
read nor considered. The Patriot very
ignorant!y, suppose, copied the criticism OF
the New York Times and omitted to ac-
knowledge.
/ sent YOU Yesterday copy Of Captain
Bent's lecture, delivered in St. Louis. 1t has
been endorsed in its main points by the most
celebrated geographical authorities of the
world-Dr. Petcrmann, of Gotha, DR.. Car
penter, of England, and many others. If
this reasoning is silly" as your comment of
the 18th states, then the observations and
physical rea>onings Of the abovc-named gen.
tlcmen, and Of Sir John Hcrschel, Keith
Johnston, Commodore Perry, Commodore
VI. F. Maury, and nearly every respectable
writer on the physical geography of the sea,
ilSp SlilN. l. SOi VIII Wv LIZ
friend the Justice Of correction.
Yours, very respectfully,
THOMPSON B. MAURY.
We have read Captain BESr's. lecture. 1t
was delivered three years ago. We also read
several years ago Mr.. MAURY's essays upon
the same subject; and, if our memory serves
us, he agrees in every point with BENT. We
beg leave therefore, to alter our comment so
far as to say that Captain BENT's theory as to
the influence of the Gulf Stream upon the
climate of Europe and in opening gateway
to the poles is nothing but an old theory
which the Patriot and the Times were
" silly" enough to republish as if it were
new. Our correspondent would frighten
lis with names. We remind him that Lord
BACON, the wiScSt and greatest of men, be-
lieyed in the Ptolemaic theory rather than
the Copernican system that SPENCER, HUx-
LEY, and DARwIS, and many other Of the
most distinguished scientists of the day, be-
lieve in the doctrine of "evolution !; and
that JOIN STUART MILL is 4 natcrialist. We
do not accept their opinions because their
names ara famous. Besides, we will quote
as good authority OIL the other side as Cap
thin BENT. The distinguished Arctic explorer,
DR.. /. |. HAYES, who knows something Of
the subject, shall speak for us, who know
nothing of it. He in 1861 reached the lati-
tude Of nearly So degrees himself. lie is by
Captain BENT himself spoken of as follows
"Dr. Haycs's experience in his gallant eX-
plorations, however, is deserving of every
consideration and this most cheerfully ac-
cord him. Thare none 10 offer IN support Of
my theory. My views are purely hypo-
tlictical, but are based upon the operation OF
certain physical laws" nc.
Captain BESr's lecture was published three
ycars ago. 1t may, perhaps, not have been
"silly" in him to suggest that northern
Europe might be rendered " frozen wilder
ness" by the construction Of large cana
across tie isthnus of Panama to swallow ul
the Gulf Stream yet DR.. HAYES, with all his
experience and with full knowledge of Cap
tain BENT's theory, writes i'll the January
issue, 1872, of the Galarya long article tc
prove that it is totally unworthy of respect
We copy only few Of his paragraphs, and
that without following the order in which
they appear in his article:
Through means such as these mankind
has come to look upon the Gulf Stream with
certain degree Of awe. 1t is "hrceder OF
storms" the giver of heat; it might become
the father of pestilence. Will it always con.
tinue to do its duty as hitherto? or will il
start off suddenly with some new fancy, and
by pursuing another course upset the physi
cal and moral status Of the world? You
would think so if you believed in that eX.
traordinary youth Lothair and his numerous
friends; tor we read that "4Apollonia was
stating to him with pcrspicuity the reasons
which quite induced her to believe the Gull
Stream had changed its course, and the po.
litical and social consequences that might
arise; and then Apollona continues, "The
religious sentiment must he wonderfully af
fcctcd by more rigorous climate, and can
not doubt that q series of severe winters
would put an end to Romanism." From
which it IS clearly to be inferred that the
Gulf Stream is propasandist in certain
geographical quarters, and would be IL
others if it only had mind to-an inference
Stream, which never interfered with thu
Roman question nor with any other
Even former director of the Nationa
Observatory [NIauryl must indulge tn
world with some pleasant fancies respecting
it Ithe Gulf Strcam]. He calls it ga rive
In the ocean," He declares that it rum
up HILL" and accounts for its birth and belns
hv saving that, "like all constant currents 0
the sea, its existence is due mainly to the dit
fercnces in the specific gravity Of sea wa
ter; three declarations which at once recall
to mind the famous decision Of the Frenci
Academy On the crab, and the bon mot o
Curier: 'I'he crab is not fish, is not red
and does not 90 backwards" So in hkt
manner the Gulf Stream is not river in th'
ocean, it does not run up hill, and 1t is no
caused mainly by the difference in the specific
gravity Of sea water.
The waters of the equatorial current entel
the Gulf of Mexico with mean tempera
ture, which they acquire at the equator, o.
IS degrees, being heated to that degree bJ
the atmosphere which has driven them along
Within the gulf they receive no accession O
heat, and with their original temperature lit
tie changed they enter the North Atlantic
riding in their course over the comparatively
cold waters which fill up that great basin
and it affects but slightly the strata beneath
il. some Of whose waters move IN exactly the
opposite direction, and, so far as known;
never with the surface stream from the gulf
There has been observed temperature OF
the surface water $50 miles of Sandy HOOK
of so degrees, while that of the deep-sea
wafer at 400 flthoms was 81 degrees. To
quote Professor Bache, "The Gulf Stream is
comparatively a superficial current, ana Is
underlaid by a vast ocean of cold water"
Once in the Atlantic, it pursues certain
definite course, to be hereafter pointed out
but it does not readily mingle with the colder
.ra.o,s a., oithnr and esneciallY the western