Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1901-04-09
THE GULF STREAM MYTH.
A TIME HoNoRED TRADITION RIDDLED
BY CONTEMPORARY SCIENCE.
New York Sun.'


We still find in some geographical
text books the old story that the Gulf
stream with It's genial warmth, makes
Norway habitable, keeps the harbor OF
Hammerfest, within the arctic circle free
from ice and gives an agreeable climate
to the whole of northwestern Europe.
About ten years ago the Proceedings of
the Royal Geographical society said 1t
would "pr0bably take generation or
two to eradicate the old, erroneous no.
tions Of text books and popular treatises
concerning the Gulf stream" The
theory is still taught in schools, found
in some physical biographies and re-
ferred to by many writers.
Many teachers have not heard, appar-
emily, that since the Porcupine and
Challenger expeditions the views Of
scientific men with regard to the Gulf
stream have undergone great change.
For years there has been practically no
dissent from the opinion that, as a dis.
tinct traceable current, the Gulf stream
disappears in mid-ocean.
From the time of the Challenger sound
ings to the present all evidence collected
by such experienced photographers as
Carpenter, Buchanan, Findlay, Thoulet,
Agassiz and others shows that the Gulf
stream as such ceases to exist some
where east of Newfoundland.
Prof. Alexander Agassiz says that
300 miles east of Newfoundland the cur
rent of the Gulf stream Is scarcely per-
ceptible. Prof. Carpenter and all the
observers of the Challenger expedition
reached the conclusion that this current
so far loses its special attributes as to be
no longer recognizable east of 30 degrees
west longitude. Where it can last be
distinctly recognized 1t has lost most of
its swiftness, depth and warmth. Its
2400 feet of depth have dwindled to 300
feet and it feebly flows due east at rate
that would require about 100 days to
take it to the European coast. Mr..
rhoulet compares it to a powerful river
that Is lost in great marshes.
A recent number of the Monthly
Weather Review, one of the scientific
publications of our governments, has an
interesting article on the Gulf stream
myth. 1t refers to the old theory of the
effect of this current upon climate as a
remarkable instance OF adherence to an
erroneous belief. SPY itself Alone" the
article says, "the Gulf stream has as
much effect on the climate Of north
western Europe as the fly in the fable
had in carrying the stage coach up the
hill" 1t goes on to say that the mild
climate of northwestern Europe Is due,
not to the Gulf stream, but to the pre-
vailing eastward and nOrtheastward
drift of the air currents which distribute
the heat conserved by the whole of the
Atlantic ocean north Of latitude 30 de-
grees.
1t is we'll known that the ocean is q
moderator of climate; that because
great water surfaces do not so rapidly
become cold or heated as do land sur.
faces, the temperature over the ocean is
more equable than that over the land
thus the prevailing air drift moving fol
thousands of miles over the ocean Car.
rics the mild and beneficent influences
of the North Atlantic over the European
islands and the shores east and northeast
of them.
About thirty years ago Capt. Silas
Bent read paper before the st. Louis
Historical society to show that it was
practicable to make northwestern Eu
rope as little desirable for human habita
ton as Labrador. He argued that If a
wide channel were cut through the
isthmus of Panama the equatorial cur
rent would be diverted into the Pacific
ocean, there would be no Gulf stream
and northwestern Europe would become
almost uninhabitable. Here is what the
Weather Review has to say about thi:
theory:
"If, by any possibility, the Calf stream
were diverted at the straits of Floridt
no one in England would be viii
wiser, for it is the aerial drift that ha:
the gift of mildness in its flow. Thu
diversion-of-the-Gu lf-stream bogy may
impress those who have a smattering OF
lphysiography, but it has no terror fol
him who knows that the Gulf stream
myth has nothing to rest on save thu
bad science of fifty years ago and iii
recrudescence in the present"