Traveller.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 347, 1 January 1903, Page 7

Traveller.

:-' • GULF STREAM after another, w£» * ne 8UH > * ne teachings of childd\gs> hood and youth are dissipated in " the brighter light of modern scientific fhb; are adults ito-day|^rl;4a»p6 whaygprffey Maitland Waf§sfcate 'She Myth,' which is still in the physical geographies of the day. Mr Watts, in the June number -of Scribner's Magazine, says that the belief that the Gulf Stream is the sole cause of the mild oceanic climate of western Europe is still taught in the public schools, of England and America, though it is absolutely without any foundation, whatsoever. ' Modern meteorology knows that the Gulf Stream as an oceanic current has bo more effect on the climate of western Europe than a weather va,nqssososctw winds that turn it.' That the'belief is still held is *a tribute to its attractive statement by one man and the, hypnotic influence of one "book;;' exerted" in" a transition period in the development of an inexact science. | * * Tho essential facts are,' continues Mr [Watts, "that the Gulf-Stream as an 'oceanic curreat ceases to exist, that.ia, to differ in act and temperature of the ocean,, J east of the longitude of Cape Race," Newfoundland. 11 cannot, therefore, convey, does not convey, warm water to the shores cf western Europe, there. tomodify.";the climate and give the British 'lsles the breezes cf che ' unvexed Bermudas' and Sweden and Norway the warmth of the Carolinas. \ '.T:.',..'. ' Rial Causes o» Climatic Change*.'.-' ' Climatic causation is not a function of ocean currents, but of aerial currents, and the mild oceanic- climate of western Europe is due ts the distribution by the permanent aerial tbe^whole Atlantic basin or tjjte moderating, mitigating effects of the ocean as a.whole. This permanent circulation takes the form of a great cyclone in high latitudes and of an enormous anti-cyclonic eddy in - mid-latitudes, and to the mid-Atlantic anti-cyclone the credit, that has been held by ,the Gulf Stream these many years must be transferred. For, were this aerial 'eddy to continue as it is now, and the general .atmospheric "drift from west to east in the northern hemisphere to remain the same, the complete disappearance of the Gulf Stream and all the oceanic currents in the>i|At3antic. i wo i ,the elightesii Effect -on "the wekther aflfd, climate of Europe; J of tße| anti-cyclone, however; and this means the? consequent interaction with the permanent cyclone that determines the circulation in the Atlantic north of the latitude of Cape Race—produces a decided change in the weather and a variation of climatic effects. And jet here again the myth obtrudes, and the phenomena are glibly attributed | to the shifting of the Gulf Stream; which very shifting itself is due on most occa- ■ sions to the action of the ofe, the anti-cyclone.' ' „ \ ■ a Bbn Fbankmn°s I^fsdbvaSfßfF'"'"

Mr "Watts thinks it is high .time, ' the warming pan> hot water'bottle theory' of Maury should ho given its quietup, and tells us that for a clearer view we must not only give up the Gulf Stream for the anti-cyclone, but 'looking pastiManry, hark back to Dr. Benjamin Franklin to get the true perspective of the development of the Gulf Stream theory and its domination in the imagination of civilized people.' It was Franklin who, returning from a fruitless trip to England in behalf of the colonies (in April, 1775), interested him*rtifl|fJijß.y taking the temperature of the air the water of the,ocean; These; historic temperature records |j£3Hoi|f first demonstrated that the -thermometer afforded "the shipmastera certain : method of determining one's approach to the Gulf Stream, and consequently the longitude, wbich was often mere guessed at than accurately known m those days. It was Franklin who, in 1770, had the' first chart of the Gulf Stream engraved for the benefitfof navigators, aiid,bne.,can .fancy the joy of th« "physicist overcoming' • tj- ; e chagrin of the statesman, when he -found his records sustaining his contention' that navigation could make the Gulf Stream its handmaiden by sailing with its current going east and avoiding it coming west, and that,' this side of. Newfoundland, the thermometer could tell him where he was, so that he could gbvenfhimself * K - •*'■"''-■ -- On landing in America Franklin found; the colonies in revolt, the battle of Lexington bavin* just been fought. I He suppressed t hie navigation charts, that they might not aid the enemy, and did not take up his investigations again until j the revolution was a thing accomplished. Not until after his death in 1790 did navigators generally adopt his plans, witb the result that voyages were made in half-the time they were before shipmasters' aiguod against the Gulf Stream. . tells us that Franklin laid it doSithat the permanent winds of the ' ilMfes' the Gulf .Stream. ;,'Tfal^li#bng ; hejras correct in the psrmanent atrial circulation r *Mjfce/ptoth; Atlantic ia.an important 'faoror "in* determining "' the aqueous surface drift; and if future investigator's had followed his lead, science would not at the beginning of the twentieth century still* stand helpless befbra the almost univeral acceptance of an erroneous theory developed half a century later/ ; Lieut. Matjet's Theory. 7 Lieut. M. F. Maury, one of the most eifted scientific writers America has ever produced,! "gave the T Gulf Stream its earthly apotheosis' in his ' Physical Geography of the Sea/ published in 1855 •By the force of his rhetoric and the, simplicity of hisfanalogieb and fixed his Views te such an extent that popular imagination was fired to actual conviction.' Maury set his face against the Franklin idev that tie winds were in any Bcnse the cause of the Gulf Stream, and referrrd to it as a ' jet of warm water, more than three thousand times greater in volume than the Mississippi river, sent entirely across "the Atlantic ocean,' and ascribed to it the ameliorating influence upon the climate of western Europe. Other geographers accepted his views, and thus* the Galf Stream myth' was carried into all quarters of the globe. The real truth, as determined by the modern science of meteorology, is that 'the circulation of air in the north ■ eastern:--part of the Atlantic, determines the climate of western**Eurbpe 'by distributing the moisture and warmth of the ocean as a whole, and not that of the. Gulf Stream, since there is no apparent Gulf in those latitudes. 'The warmth of the southwest winds of Europe is due to the moisture they contain, which givea' bfft ifs/latent heap • when it becomes cloud and rain. ' The winds take up this moisture from the sur--1 face of the .ocean when the latter is warmed by the sun,,and would do the ■ Bame were there no Gulf Stream. •The effect of the transfer of warm • water to the shore of western Europe by the Gulf Stream is inappreciable as com- ■ pared with the transfer of moistureV cloud and warmth by the wind, in fact, observations fail to show that there is any warm water transferred to Europe by the Gulf Stream.

' Tin? C-fsvlf Stream is the result of the intcychrnij-s of wHtir between the cold northern iad '"he warm eqatorial portion o? the Atlantic, fe»jt * * *" the solid stream flowing past Florida, is a deep sea current^inaplrlciably'affected by the %'.A- •.;'"'•;": v feAnd thhß, farewell, -another cherished faith, overborne by modern scientific troth.