Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1889-04-05
THE KUR0 SIW0.
GREAT HEAT CARRYING
OCEAN CURRENT.
IL Brings Warmth and Fruitfulness
tothe Japan Islands and Makes
Southern Alaska Warmer
Than New England.
uKuro Siwo. ~

These two words are from the Japan
csc language, and signify Black Stream.
The Kuro Siwo-so called from the
tint of the water within its limits-is a
northeasterly de ection of the great
ocean current which flows north from
the equatorial seas and renders the eli
mate of the Japan Islands 80 equabe
aud fruitful. A part Of this warm stream
in the ocean crosses the Pacific from tho
coasts of Asia, and, caught in the great
blight of the Alaska peninsula and the
Aleutian islets, flows in and out among
all those hundreds of islands, from Sitka
southwark to Vancouver, and gives to
this whole coast its moist, mild winter.
The kuro Siwo is, SO to speak, the
Gulf Stream of these coasts, or rather
what the Gulf Stream would be to the
coast of New England and Nova Scotia,
if instead of keeping out to sea and al
lowing the cold polar current to flow in
through the Straits of Belle Isle aud de-
scend between it and the shores, it were
to wash these shores along their whole cx-
tent. For could the Gulf Stream be turned
ashore, the New England winter would
lose its rgor. Certain daring engineers
have deemed it possible TO defect the
ocean currents by human skill. One Of
the proposed schemes has been to con-
struct a dam across the icy Straits OF
Eelle Isle, to prevent the entry of the
polar current with its procession of ice
bergs into the Gulf of st. Lawrence.
In these times of great engineering
enterprises the mere suggestion of an at
tempt TO modify the climate of the Garth
on SO vast scale seems wildly chimeri-
cal-but who can say what wonders the
future has in store for the carth2
Southern Alaska, fifteen degrees of
latitude furthur north than New Eng
land. has the mildcr climate of the two.
At Sitla there is but little ice and snow
Thus the n uro Siwo is q heat carrier for
the west coast, us the Gulf Stream has
been supposed to be for the coast of the
British Islands and the west coast of
Northern Europe.
The great glaciers of Alaska, of which
we hear so much, descend from Lofty
mountains that wall in the coast. but
reach down to the sea-lcvcl ut only q
Alaska, by the way, are slowly melting
away and shrinking in size. The change
is ascribcd to some secular thenge i'll the
climate of this part of the Northern
hemisphere.
In other respects the weather pheno.
mena, produced by the Gulf Stream of
the Atlantic at Nova Scotia and New
foundland, and the Black Stream Of the
tactic at Alaska, arc somewhat similar
But not alone has the kuro Siwo
brought warmth and moisture to the
northwest coast; it is now credited, by
some scientific men, with having borne
the first human inhabitants to America.
Eighty years ago while the Russians were
still in possession of Alaska-or ituss:an-
America, as it was then called-thc
attention of the good people of Sitkn was
attracted ono morning TO Il strange look
ing craft, which had apparently come
ashore during the night on one of the
hundred little, rocky, wooded islands
that lie about the harbor-thc islet
whi:h to-day bears The name of
Japonskoi. Boats were manned, and
those who approached the stranger
found it to be The dismas.ed, half water
logged and unmanageablc hull of IL
japanese junk. Strange to say. there
were ten or twelve japanese Oh board,
nearly dead fiom exposure, disease n q
famine. The Junk had been d smastcd
in tempest, while on voyage from one
japanese port to another, and, beyond
the power of the hapess crew to prevent
it, had drifted steadily northeasiward in
the Kuro Siwo, which sets constantly
and quite strongly from the coasts Of
China and apan across the Pacific
toward America.
The Russians of Stlla cared for the
poor casiawa with great kindness, and
after time returned them by ship 10
their own country.
Thus we have it demonstrated that
even within the present century the Kuro
Siwo has borne human be ngs from Asia,
the great mother of the human race"
to America. There are a'so traditions
that, on two former occasions, japanese
Or chinese junks have driftcd to the
coast OF America farther southwark.
How many times these significant accl-
tents may have occurred in the great I'M
written past of our continent no one
knows, and who shall attempt to say?-
You.Hs C.mLanion.