rush in below, that the supply for the upward
movement may be kept up. Thirdly, the vapour,
being lighter than air, presses it out, and takes
its place, causing the barometer to fall. Thus
again an in-rush, or wind, is called for below.
Fourthly, arrived in the cloud region, this vapour,
being condensed, liberates the latent heat which
is borrowed from the air and water below; which
heat, being now set free and made sensible, raises
the temperature of the surrounding air, causing
it to expand and ascend still higher; and so
the winds are again called for.  Ever ready,
they come; and thus we have a fourth way.
Fifthly, innumerable rain-drops now begin to
fall; and, in their descent, as in a heavy shower,
they press out and displace the air below with
great force.  To this cause are ascribed the
gusts of wind which are often found to blow
outward from the centre of sudden and violent
thunder-showers. Sixthly, electricity (especially
in thunder-storms) may assist in creating
movements in the atmosphere, and so make claim to
be regarded as a wind-producing agent. But
the winds are supposed In depend mainly on the
power of the second, third, and fourth agencies
for their violence.

Great prominence in the brewing of storms is
to be given to the latent heat, which is set free
in the air when vapour is condensed into rain.
It follows that, in sailor's phrase, the Gulf Stream
is the great weather-breeder of the North
Atlantic Ocean. Its waters are warm; they give
off vapour rapidly; an observer in the moon
would doubtless be able, on a winter's day
especially, to trace out by the mist in the air the
path of the Gulf Stream through the sea. The
most furious gales of wind sweep along with it;
and the fogs of Newfoundland, which so much
endanger navigation in spring and summer, owe
their existence to the presence, in that cold sea,
of the immense volumes of hot water; brought by
the Gulf Stream. Sir Philip Brooke found the
temperature of the air on each side of  it at the
freezing point, while that of its waters was
eighty degrees. The excess of heat daily brought
into such a region by the waters of the Gulf
Stream would, if suddenly stricken from them,
be sufficient to make the column of superincumbent
atmosphere hotter than melted iron.

With such an element of atmospherical
disturbance in its bosom, we might expect storms
of the most violent kind to accompany it in its
course. Accordingly, the most terrific that rage
on the ocean have been known to spend their fury
within or near its borders. Of all storms, the
hurricanes of West indies and the typhoons
of the China seas cause the most ships to
founder. The stoutest men of war go down
before them: seldom is any one of the crew left
to tell the tale. Nautical works record a West
India hurricane so violent that it forced the
Gulf Stream back to its sources, and piled up
the water in the Gulf to the height of thirty
feet.  The Ledbury Snow attempted to ride it
out. When it abated, she found herself high up
on the dry land, and discovered that she had let
go her anchor among the tree-tops of Elliott's
Key.  The great hurricane of 1780 commenced
in Barbadoes. In it, bark was blown from
the trees, and the fruits of the earth destroyed.
The very bottom and depths of the sea were
uprooted; and the waves rose to such a height,
that forts and castles were washed away, and
their great guns carried about in the air like
chaff. Houses were razed, ships wrecked, and
the bodies of men and boats lifted up in the air
and dashed to pieces in the storm. At the
different islands, not less than twenty thousand
persons lost their lives on shore; while further
to the north, the Stirling Castle and the Dover
Castle, British men-of-war, went down at sea, and
fifty sail were driven on shore at the Bermudas.

Sailors dread the storms of the Gulf Stream
more than they do those of any other part of the
ocean. It is not their fury alone, but the ugly
sea they raise, which is the object of especial
terror. The current of the stream running
in one direction, and the wind blowing in
another, create a sea that is often frightful.
Several years ago the British Admiralty set on
foot inquiries as to the cause of the storms in
certain parts of the Atlantic, which so often rage
with disastrous effects to navigation. The
conclusion was, that they are occasioned by the
inequality of the temperatures of the Gulf Stream
and the neighbouring regions, both in the air
and the water. These commotions are far more
frequent and violent in winter, when the
contrasts between the warm and cool places are
greatest, than they are in summer, when those
contrasts are least. But the Gulf Stream carries
the temperature of summer, even in the dead of
winter, as far north as the Great Banks of
Newfoundland, and there maintains it in the midst
of the severest frosts. It is the juxtaposition of
this warm water with a cold atmosphere which
gives rise to the "silver fogs'' of Newfoundland—
one of the most beautiful phenomena to be seen
anywhere among the treasures of the frost-king.

The southern extremities of Africa and South.
America have won for themselves, among seamen,
the name of "the stormy capes;"  but the
log-books at the Washington Observatory have
shown that there is not a storm-find in the wide
ocean which can out-top the Atlantic coasts of
North America. The China seas and the North
Pacific may, perhaps, vie with this part of the
Atlantic, but neither Cape Horn nor the Cape
of Good Hope can equal them in frequency or
in fury. Why should this be the case? Probably
for the following reasons: In the regions
of the globe lying to the south of the Tropic of
Capricorn we lack those contrasts which the
mountains, the deserts, the plains, the continents,
and the seas of the north afford for the production
of atmospherical disturbances. Neither have
we in the southern seas such contrasts of hot and
cold currents. In the southern hemisphere, the
currents are broad and sluggish; in the northern,
narrow, sharp, and strong. In the north, too, we
have other climatic contrasts for which we may
search southern seas in vain.  Hence, without
further investigation, we may infer southern seas
to be less boisterous than northern.