The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-09-27

| The Rev. DR. 5. L. Blshop OF 1oio
lulu publishes in Science" of septem-
Der 9, 1904, a new Theory of Ocean Cur
rents in the Pacific.
! I propose to offer. reasons for believ-
ling that an immense system of cur
lrents Of ice-cold water occupies a large
! part of the Pacific Ocean, correspond
ing in magnitude to the vast warm
! current System of the equatorial Pa
cific, which eliminates in the great
Gulf Stream of Japan, or the Kuro
Siwo.
/ But preliminary to this L would note
some points relative to that remark
able stream of cold water, which flows
| in a vast volume southerly, skirting
southeast Alaska, Vancouver's Island,
the Pacific states of Washington, Ore
gon and California, and finally passes
out westward TO Hawaii, beyond which
] group it becomes merged into the great
| equa torial current running westward
| This stream. is of very low tempera-
ture, of immense volume and of great
velocity 1t is unique in its powerful
effects upon the climates of the coasts
along which it flows. To the states of
Washington and Oregon throughout
the summer it imparts constantly
cool and moist climate extending over
one hundred miles into the interior. It
also greatly rnitigates the cold of win
ter Both these conditions are in strong
contrast to the arid summer and biting
winter climates which prevail in the
interior of those states east of the Cas-
cade Range.
To the entire coast of California
from klamath to Los Angeles this
current lends chill fogs throughout the
summer afternoons, whose moisture
clothes with verdure the coast hills for
many miles in breadth, while the in
terror of the state is dry and parched.
It makes warm clothing needful in San
Francisco every day in the year. 1t
also mitigates the scorching heats of
the interior valleys of California, CIV
ing cool nights to render them habit
able
Finally turning westward like the
trade winds under the impulse of the
globes rotation, this mighty current
broadens out into the open ocean,
gradually gaining warmth. After ira
persing 200 miles it reaches the Ha-
waiian Islands, still at the low tenn
perature of 70 degrees in late summer.
and of below so degrees in late winter.
This imparts to that favored group a
uniformity subtropical climate such as
is unknown to any other land in the
same latitude. Borne on this powerful
current there may often be seen pass
ing the islands or landing on their
shores, immense trees as well as saw
logs which have been swept to sea b.
freshets in the Columbia river.
What is the source of this mighty
current? This is problem not hither-
to solved. 1t has been the custom TO
| call it a continuation of the great Gulf
Stream of Japan or Kuro Siwo. To
that solution of the problem there are
two objections which appear insuper-
able.
One is that the Japan stream must
necessarily pass out and dissipate itself
in the vast breadth of the Pacific
Ocean long before reaching Alaska.
Even if enough of the Kuro Siwo could
hold together to form a noticeable cur
trent on the Alaskan coast, it could be
only a wasted and meager stream,
wholly unlike the mighty current that
skirts the continent.
The other objection is the extreme
GOODNESS of the American coast-cur-
rent. This could not possibly proceed
from water of such high temperature
as the Kuro siwo, if the latter had held
together as a compact stream. So COM
pacted, it must have retained most of
its warmth, even in traversing the
higher ATTITUDES. It has been alleged
that it has been chilled by passing the
VICINITY of the great Alaskan glaciers
But the Muir glacier, the Malaspina
and all combined are of comparatively
limited extent. They send no bergs
out to sea; they are totally inadequate
materially TO cool the adjacent ocean.
| What then is the real source of the
Pacific coast cold current? Leaving
for a. little this problem. we turn now
to second one, which may help us to
find the answer to the first The depths
of the Pacific Ocean are occupied
Throughout by an immense stratum OF
ice-cold water at 80 degrees. which is
slowly creeping northward. The ex-
istence of this cold stratum is well es-
tablished by all deep-sea temperature
Isoundings throughout the Pacific That
| it is creeping northward is inferred
from an analogous condition under the
Atlantic Ocean. 1t is fact familiar
to photographers that similar
stratum of cold water underlies the
| Atlantic at a depth of 1000 fathoms
NEAR the equator. however the IS de-
grees stratum is found to rise to within
| a few hundred fathoms of the surface
The necessary inference is that two op-
Iposite currents are meeting and push.
ing each other upwards, the one de-
Irived from the Arctic ice, the other
from the Antarctic Nearing the sur
face they gather warmth and com
mingle with the warm equatorial cur