AN ADDRESS 
DF.MVKKKO P.RFOItB 
THE ST. LOUIS HISTORICAL SOCIETY, DECEMBER 10, ISOS, AND 
REPEATED BY REQUEST BEFORE THE MERCANTILE 
LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, JANUARY 21, lSG'J. 
UPON THE 
(Thcrmomcti'ic OVatnvans to the pole 
SURFACE CURRENTS OF THE OCEAN, AND THE INFLUENCE 
OF THE LATTER UPON THE CLIMATES 
OF THE WORLD. 
SILAS K K N T 
SAINT LOUIS: 
n. 1*. STl'DLKr Ji: CO., PRINTER!), I.ITIIOORAPIIKRS .V\f> HINDERS, 
1869. AN ADDRESS 
DELIVERED REKORE 
'I'll E ST. LOl’IS HISTORICAL SOCIETY, I >K( 'EM HER 10. 1SII8. AND 
BEREATED BY BEQUEST BE LORE T1IE MERCANTILE 
LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. .JANUARY 21. 1S00. 
rpox THE 
IktiMMctni' fetcTO# to the § $lt 
SURFACE < UR RENTS OF THE OCEAN, AND THE INFLUENCE 
OF THE LATTER I RON THE CLIMATE 
OF THE WORLD. 
By SI LAS RENT. 
SAINT LOUIS: 
It. 1*. SITDLEY * CO.. PRINTERS AND LITHOGRAPH KUS, 
1869. TO 
WILLIAM TOD IIELMUTI1, M. D.. 
FuK HIM 
Attainments as a Scholar anil lits SDlorth as a dlentltman. 
THIS ADDRESS IS INSCRIBED, 
HIS FKIENIJ 
ISILA-S bent. ADDRESS. 
Ladies and (ieutUnion : 
Tlu* (subject which it is my intention to introduce lor your consideration is 
not new. It Inis interested the minds of great men in all nations. It embra- 
ces much scientific research, and involves circumstances of interest to the 
world. It takes us from the equator to the pole. Tt includes mathemati- 
cal and nautical calculations—while the winds that blow over the surface of 
the globe—the currents that, with never ceasing flow traverse the mighty 
oceans—the climates of various regions of the earth, and the varied tempera- 
tures of the waters, are brought before us in our investigations. 
Fully impressed with a knowledge of these facts, and especially bearing 
in mind the comprehensive nature of the subject, it is with many misgivings 
that I appear before you to discuss this question of “The Thcnnometric 
Gateways to the Pole,"1' and were it not that circumstances appear to have 
conspired for the past thirty years to bring the consideration of such topics 
iu their varied bearings full}' before my mind, and to have placed me in a po- 
sition for proper understanding, thought, study and experience in those mat- 
ters which essentially belong to a just comprehension of the subject, it would 
not now be introduced for your consideration. 
But other and higher objects than the mere accuracy of my theory—some- 
thing more elevated than the just and honorable feeling of satisfaction that 
would, were it to prove correct, certainly belong to him who could claim 
priority in such an important discovery—has actuated me at the present time, 
when from various sources I find that Germany, Sweden, France, England 
and Russia have in contemplation expeditions to the Pole. It is the actual 
saving of human life—the benefits that will accrue to many departments of 
science, and the solving of a geographical problem which is now. for the most 
part, conjectural. 
Twenty-five years upon the ocean, in constant intercourse with seamen of 
all nations, a position as an officer of the United States Navy, apart of whose 
duty it was to record and compare'meteorological observations, an honora- 
ble acquaintance with scientific navigators and explorers, are, I trust, suffi- 
cient guarantee for the earnestness of my belief in that which 1 shall endeavor 
to demonstrate, and which I firmly believe to be true, 
THE DOCTRINE OF GTllliEXTS. 
With these few remarks, 1 shall proceed directly to the consideration of my 
subject. There is a circulation in the air; there is a circulation in the bodies 
of all animals; there is a circulation in the ocean—all of which are governed 
bv laws, immutably fixed, and which, in all their modifications and condi- 
tions. they rigidly observe and obey, 6 
Place under the microscope the web of a frog's foot, and hither and thither 
we shall see varied currents of blood crossing and recrossing each other, ap- 
parently without order and without law. 
Examine the capillary vessels of the human body, and there, in the most 
tortuous ramification, passes and repasses the life-giving fluid from one set of 
vessels to the other, to all appearance without any governing cause. Look 
into the bosom of the mighty deep, either when the storms of heaven are 
lashing the white topped waves, or when the serene sky is breathing a beau- 
tiful calm over the waters—and here seemingly with the utmost incongruity, 
are currents and counter currents, meeting each other at all variety of angles, 
above, below, near and far, over the whole surface and depths of the waters. 
Further scientific investigation, however, teaches us that, as in the human 
system one variety of vessels pass from one side of the heart carrying the pure 
blood to every portion of the body,—that another set of tubes of wonderful con- 
formation carry back the impure blood to the heart, where in obedience to the 
inexplicable laws of nature, it is sent into the lungs, there to be purifled and 
again'to go through the body with its life-giving and healthful influence,— 
and, moreover, as this purifying process is being accomplished, animal 
beat is generated: so it is with the currents of the ocean, which it will be 
my endeavor as briefly as possible to explain. 
EQUILIBRIUM OF NATURE. 
There is an equilibrium in all nature. There is an unseen power that, while 
it utterly forbid.-annihilation of matter, constantly so alters the forms, ap- 
pearances and uses of the molecules, that loss in one portion of the universe 
is counterbalanced by a gain in another; anil thus, by that inscrutable power 
of adaptation, the earth revolves within its orbit and the stars sing together 
iu harmony, while the dew upon the blossom, the rain, the ice, the snow, the 
beat and cold, all conspire to perfect those laws of compensation and adapta- 
tion, thus indicating to the student of physical science that perfect harmony, 
law and order in nature, which, to the unitiated, are obscure, incongruous, 
and undefined. 
'fbe sea, the atmosphere, and the sun, are to the earth what the blood, the 
lungs and the heart are to the animal economy. 
The process of evaporation is provided by an all-wise T’rovidence to purify, 
renovate, and vivify the surface of the globe; and in this great and continually 
recurring action may be seen one of the causes of those currents which are 
found in the ocean. Let me here quote to you a single passage,from one of 
tin; most scientific and at the same time beautifully written works upon the 
subjects of which we are now treating. I allude to that on ‘ ‘The Physical 
Geography of the Sea,” by my friend Admiral M. F. Maury. He says: ‘“The 
mean annual fall of rain on the entire surface of the earth is estimated at about 
live feet. To evaporate water enough annually from the ocean to cover the 
earth on the average live feet deep with rain ; to transport it from one zone 
to another, and to precipitate it in the right places, at suitable times and in 
the proportions due, is one of the offices of the grand atmospherical machine. 
This water (bear in mind) is evaporated principally from the torrid zone. 
•■Suppo'ing it all to come thence, we shall have encircling the earth a belt of ocean three thousand miles in breadth, from which this atmosphere evapo- 
rates a layer of water annually sixteen feet in depth. And to hoist up a< high 
as the clouds, and lower down again all the water in a lake sixteen feet deep, 
three thousand miles broad, and twenty-four thousand miles long, is the yearly 
business of this invisible machinery.” 
Now 1 ask you, understanding as we do the constant effort of nature to 
restore equilibrium, and the laws of adaptation, what must be the effect upon 
tin* ocean of the removal of this immense mass of water of twenty-four thou- 
sand miles in length, three thousand miles wide, and sixteen feet in depth? 
Certainly an endeavor on the part of the water to occupy this enormous 
space; and to do this, all the waters north and south of this space or zone are 
at once set in motion to restore the equilibrium; and were there no conti- 
nents and islands, or inequalities in the bed of the oceans, this flow would he 
uniform round'the whole earth ; but by these local obstructions they are 
divided into many streams and diverted into numerous channel-ways, through 
which they pour their volumes to form the great equatorial currents of the 
Atlantic and Pacific. 
THE ISOTHERMAL CURRENTS. 
By the earth's rotation on its axis, objects on its surface between the tropic's 
are carried from West to East at the rate of a thousand miles an hour, whilst 
as we advance toward the Poles, this rate decreases in the same proportion as 
the parallels of latitude decrease in circumference; so that when we arrive at 
the points where the circumference is only twelve thousand miles, instead of 
twenty-four thousand as it is at the Equator, this velocity of rotation is but 
tive hundred miles an hour—and so on decreasing, until reaching the Pole. 
Now an object set in motion toward the Equator from the Polar regions 
where the velocity of rotation is small—will constantly he arriving at points 
on the earth's surface where the velocity is greater; and not at once acquirin'' 
this greater velocity, its direction will tend obliquely to the westward. Hence 
we tind these streams or currents which flow from the Pole* toward the Equa- 
tor, always taking a southwest wardly direction whenever the continents and 
islands will permit. These streams from the Northern and Southern Hemis- 
pheres, meeting at the Equator, form and give direction to the equatorial 
currents, the waters of which are thrown to the westward ; but, interrupted 
by the continents wdiieh lie across their paths, and changed in their specific 
gravity by the expansive heat of the sun, they throw off hot streams to the 
north and south, like blood from the heart in the animal system, to carry 
their life-giving warmth and nourishment along their path to the earth's 
extremities. 
Of these streams, there are two in the Northern Hemisphere and probably 
three in the Southern. It is only to the former, however, that we have sj e- 
cially to call your attention on this occasion; and these are known as the 
Oulf Stream of the Atlantic, and lvuro-Siwo of the Pacific. Their striking 
resemblance, as traced upon the chart, in size, form and direction is apparent 
to the eye. The Gulf Stream was delineated from observations taken by the 
I'nited States Coast Survey, under Professor A. D. Baclie; and the Kuro-Siwo 
from observations made upon it by the Japan Expedition, under Commodore 
M. Perrv, To describe the first, l shall again quote from Admiral Maury's “Physical 
Geography of the Sea,” wherein lie says : 
‘ ‘There is a river in the ocean. In the severest droughts it never fails; and 
in the mightiest floods it never overflow's. Its banks and its bottom are of 
cold water, while its current is of warm. 
••The Gulf of Mexico is its fountain, and its mouth is in the Arctic Sea. 
It is the Gulf Stream. There is in the world no other sucli majestic flow 
of waters. 
•'Its current is more rapid than the Mississippi, and its volume is more 
than a thousand times greater. 
••Its waters, as far out as the Carolina coasts, are of an indigo blue. 
• "They are so distinctly marked, that their line of junction with the com- 
mon sea water may be traced by the eye. 
“Often, one-half of the vessel may be perceived floating in Gulf Stream water, 
while the other half is in common water of the sea, so sharp is the line, and 
such the want of affinity between those waters, and such too the reluctance— 
so to speak—on the part of those of the Gulf Stream to mingle with the com- 
mon water of the sea. * * * * * * * 
“At the very season of the year when the Gulf Stream is rushing in greatest 
volume through the Straits of Florida and hastening North with the greatest 
rapidity, there is a cold stream from Baffin's Bay, Labrador and the coasts 
of the North, running to the South with equal velocity. 
“These two currents meet off the Grand Banks of New Foundland, where 
the latter is divided. ‘ ‘One part of it underruns the Gulf Stream, as is shown 
by the icebergs which are carried in a direction tending across its course. 
* * •* The other fork runs between the United States coast and the Gulf 
Stream, to the South. As a rule, the hottest water of the Gulf Stream is at 
or near the surface; and as the deep sea thermometer is sent down, it shows 
that these waters, though still far warmer than the water on either side at 
corresponding depths, becomes gradually less and less warm until the bottom 
of the current is reached. There is reason to believe that the warm waters 
of the Gulf Stream are no where permitted in the oceanic economy to touch 
the bottom of the sea. There is every where a cushion of cool water between 
them and the solid parts of the earth's crust. This arrangement is sugges- 
tive and strikingly beautiful. One of the benign offices o fthe Gull Stream is 
04 convey heat from the Gulf of Mexico, where otherwise it would become 
excessive, and to dispense it in regions beyond the Atlantic, for the ameliora- 
tion of the climates of the British Islands and all Western Europe. 
“Now cold water is one of the best non-conductors of heat, and if the warm 
water of the Gulf Stream was sent across the Atlantic in contact with the 
solid crust of the earth—comparatively a good conductor of heat—instead olj 
being sent across as it is in contact with a cold non-conducting cushion of coo 
water to tend it from the bottom, all its heat would be lost in the first part of 
the way, and the soft climates of both France and England would be as that 
of Labrador, severe in the extreme, and ice-bound. 
"The maximum temperature of the Gulf Stream is 86 degrees, or about 9 
degrees above the ocean temperature due to the latitude. Increasing its lati- 
tude 10 degrees, it loses but 2 degrees of temperature; and after having run three thousand miles toward the North it still preserves, even in winter, the 
heat of summer. 
“With this temperature it crosses the fortieth degree of north latitude, and 
then, overflowing its liquid banks, it spreads itself out for thousands of square 
leagues over the cold waters around, and covers the ocean with a mantle of 
warmth that serves so much to mitigate in Europe the rigors of winter. 
* * Moving now more slowly, but dispensing its genial influences more freely, 
il dually meets t he British Islands. By these it is divided; one part going into 
the Polar basin of Spitzbergcn. the other entering the Bay of Biscay, but each 
with a warmth considerably above the ocean temperature. 
** We know not, except approximately in one or two places, what the depth 
or under temperature of the Gulf Stream may be; but assuming the tempera- 
ture and velocity at the depth of two hundred fathoms to be those of the sur- 
face, and taking the well-known difference between the capacity of air and 
water for specitic heat as the argument, a simple calculation will show that 
the quantity of heat discharged over the Atlantic from the waters of 
the Gulf Stream in a winter's day, would be sufficient to raise the whole 
volume of atmosphere that rests upon France and the British Islands from the 
freezing point to summer heat. ’ ’ 
Then, when speaking of the effect on the climates of Central America and 
Mexico arising from the1 excess of heat carried off from them by this stream, 
he says: “A simple calculation will show that the quantity of heat daily 
carried ofl'by the Gulf Stream from those regions and discharged over thcAt- 
antic, is sufficient to raise mountains of iron from zero to the melting point, and 
to keep in fore from them a molten stream of metal greater in volume than the 
tenters daily discharged from the Mississippi river.” 
TUB GULF STREAM AND THE KURO-SIWO. 
These are brief extracts from what this profound thinker and beautiful wri- 
ter has said in regard to the Gulf Stream, its character, and influence upon the 
regions of the globe whose shores are washed by its genial waters; and they 
are equally applicable to the Kuro-Siwo of the Pacific as they are to the 
Gulf Stream. The Kuro-Siwo, however, was not known at the time of his 
writing, and was delineated, as before stated, from the metcrological records 
of the sixteen vessels composing the Japan expedition. 
The analogy between these streams is as complete as it is striking. By 
looking at this chart, on which they are traced, you will perceive that they 
both spring from the northern edge of the equatorial currents, in latitude 22 
degrees north. That they both, at first, start directly north, and then curve 
gradually to the eastward. That neither of them (except the Gulf Stream at 
its origin,) touch the eastern shores of America or Asia, but that, after sweep- 
ing obliquely across the vast oceans in which they lie. they bathe the western 
shores of those continents; that, when striking those continents, they arc 
both split into two unequal parts ; that the larger portions of each, impinging 
upon the land, are recurved to the southward, and finally fall again into tli 
currents of the equator ; that the smaller portions of both, however, continue 
their course to the northeast, into the Arctic ocean—that of the Gulf Stream 
by way of Spitzbergcn, and that of the Kuro-Siwo by Behrings Straits ; that 10 
they both have cold counter currents intervening between them and the con- 
tinents near which they rise, and which run in directly opposite directions 
to their own courses, and with equal rapidity; that they both have the same 
high temperature of 8<i degrees, preserving in the dead of winter the heat of 
summer ; that they are both cushioned in heds of cool water, which, from want 
of affinity, robs them of none of their warmth ; that this warmth, after having 
been carried thousands of miles through the waters of the oceans, is (the 
moment these streams touch the land) thrown out with such freedom, and 
diffused so far, by the conductive power of the earth, as to change the cli- 
mates of nearly half of both the continents; and that they both, in their never- 
ceasing and unchanging beneficence, are fit symbols of the wisdom and 
goodness of Him who “created the heavens,” “formed theearthand made it," 
and “created it not in vain,” but who “formed it to he inhabited.” 
I have compared the circulation of the waters of the oceans to that of the 
blood of the animal system; but whilst Harvey's discovery revealed the laws 
which govern the latter, and led to their complete development, we have but 
glimpses here and there, of those which control the currents of the oceans in 
their compensating and equalizing ramifications. For, of even those on the 
surface, but very little is known, only a few of them having been delineated 
or systematically examined; and of those below the surface, or in the depths 
of the ocean, we know literally nothing, further than that they do exist and 
are unchangeable. 
POLAR CURRENTS AXI) ICEBERGS. 
The polar currents, which have been described as flowing down to form flic 
great currents of the Equator, mostly underrun the warm waters of the Gulf 
Stream and Kuro-Siwo, as is shown by the drift of the icebergs in the North 
Atlantic, which maintain a direction to the southward across the course ofthe 
Gulf'Stream, until dissolved by the tepid heat ofthe latter. 
To properly understand why these icebergs do not take the course ofthe 
Gulf Stream, when they encounter its current, instead of retaining that of 
the current from the North, it must be remembered that ice floating in salt 
water has seven-eighths of its volume immersed, and only one-eighth above tin* 
surface. An iceberg, then, that rises three hundred feet above the surface of 
the sea, is submerged to the depth of twenty-one hundred feet; and if the 
surface current, therefore, is not. more than a thousand feet in depth, it will, 
of course, take the direction of that which may be running beneath it. 1 have 
seen an iceberg in the Southern ocean which we estimated to be two miles in 
diameter, and about seven hundred feet high ; consequently its depth below 
the surface was nearly five thousand feet, and in the heaving swell of a fierce 
tempest, in which our ship had been struggling for a fortnight, it stood as 
unmoved in its majestic grandeur as the rock-bound coasts oft ’ape Horn itselt. 
THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE. 
Having, however, described the two great streams in the North Atlantic 
and Pacific which have the most direct bearing upon my subject, and traced 
the flow of large portions of their warm waters to the very threshold of the 
Arctic sea, 1 will now, before following them farther, discuss another branch 
of the subject necessary for the proper elucidation of my theory. 'IV* those whose pursuits of life have not rendered them familiar with 
nautical science, it maybe well to explain the proper signification of cer- 
tain technicalities, which is necessary to a thorough appreciation of the 
subject. 
First, I must demonstrate what is understood by the " Northwest Passage," 
in contradistinction to the Passage to the Pole. 
Many European nations in early times, accepting the theory of the rotundity 
of the earth, and seeking for a shorter route to India than that by the way of 
the Cape of Good Hope, endeavored to sail thence by directing their course 
west ward across t he At hint ie. ('hristopher Columbus entertained this idea, 
and even after tlie success of his voyages, believed that he had accomplished 
the desired result, and died supposing that he had reached the Islands lying 
off the east coast of Asia. Ilence, flu* name India Islands' was given to the 
group lying at the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico. Hut after a time, when if 
was discovered that a vast continent and mighty ocean lay between these 
India Isles and the shores of Asia, the term “West Indies’’ was applied to 
I hem in contra-distinction to the “East India Islands” found to the south- 
ward of t he eastern hemisphere. Tims it will appear the continent of America 
blocked up the western route to India, 'flic route by Cape Horn, besides 
being more distant, was even more dangerous than that by the Cape of Good 
Hope, and the idea became prevalent that the v might exist and be practicable 
for commerce, a passage round the northern extremity of America; and this 
passage lying in a Northwest direction from Europe, gave rise to the expres- 
sion of “Northwest Passage.” The first attempt that was ever made to dis- 
cover or effect this passage was undertaken by John Cortercal, a Portuguese, 
in the year 1503. He failed; and so has all the marvelous intelligence, enter- 
prise and energy that have been expended in that direction by every maritime na- 
tion of the world, from that time to this. 
sik John's j ka.nklix's expedition. 
The early expeditions, being but poorly provided, and having no succor 
or supplies to fall back upon—when so unfortunate as to be caught in the ice 
for the winter—were usually completely destroyed by the scurvy, starvation 
and intense cold ; and that those of the past century have not shared the same 
fate is, in a great measure, to be attributed to the timely assistance rendered 
them by other expeditions whenever they have met with disasters. 
Of this, we want no more fearful illustration than that afforded us by the 
terrible fate of Sir John Franklin's party. 
This expedition sailed from England in 1S44. The vessels—Erebus and 
Terror—were probably lost in 1S45; and notwithstanding the millions of 
money that have been spent in expeditions of relief, and a heroism of sell- 
sacrificing energy in the personel composing those expeditions, of which the 
history of the world scarcely affords a parallel—yet the intelligence now conies 
to us that the American explorer Hall has recently obtained undoubted proof 
that ('apt. Crozier—Franklin’s second in command—with several of the men, 
were still living only some three years ago! Can the mind picture a more 
frightful fate than the imprisonment of these people for twenty years in such 
a region of frozen desolation as must have been the scene of their wanderings V OK OTHER FAILURES. 
Ill addition to the many expeditions made in this direction to the west of 
Greenland, there have been others equally fruitless, so far as the main object 
of their enterprise was concerned, that have been sent to the northeast from 
t lie Atlantic, to find a route round the North of Europe and Asia to India ; 
and still others, though comparatively few, that have penetrated Behrings 
St raits with the special purpose of passing either to the east or west—as op- 
portunity might offer—from the Pacific to the Atlantic. 
Of these latter, the celebrated Captain James Cook was the first. He made 
his attempt in 1779, but did not attain a higher point than latitude 70 degrees 
29 min. n. long 101 deg. 40 min. av., though the ice which barred his way 
was loose ice, and not a compact barrier, showing that it was drift ice, brought 
there by the counter currents or winds, or by both combined, and was tem- 
porary. Cook being killed at the Sandwich Islands by the natives, his suc- 
cessor, Captain Clerke, made another attempt during the following summer, 
but did not reach as high a latitude as Cook. 
Kotzebue, of the Russian Navy, made an attempt in 1815 to pass to t lie 
West round the Asiatic continent, but was barred by ice ; he however says : 
• • The sea teas open to the northeast as far as the eye could see,” and “that passing 
rom the American to the Asiatic coast was like passing immediately from sum- 
mer into winter.” 
Capt. Beecliy, in 182(1, tried to make a “northeast” passage from Behring's 
Straits, by clinging to the coast, but got only as far as Cape Barrow. Capt. 
McClure, also of the British Navy, passed these Straits in 1850, to search 
for Sir John Franklin, in co-operation with four vessels under Sir Edward 
Belcher, which were to go northwest from Davis’ Straits. Along the low 
lands of the north ends of the continents, the tides and freshwater from the 
rivers which flow thence, generally keep open a narrow fringe of water be- 
tween the ice and the shore, during the summer months; and along this fringe 
or strip of water, Capt. McClure coasted till reaching the Parry Islands, 
about longitude 117 deg. west, where his ship was frozen in. 
In June 1853, lie abandoned his ship, the “Investigator,” and with her 
crew traveled one hundred and seventy miles over the ice to join the “Resolute,” 
which was also frozen in at Dealy Island, and which in turn was abandoned 
by order of Sir Edward Belcher, and which in September, 1855, was found 
in Baffin’s Bay, latitude G7 deg. N.. by a New London whaler, still wedged 
securely in a field of ice covering an area of hundreds of square miles, with 
which she had been safely drifted twelve hundred miles to the southward and 
eastward from the point where she had been abandoned. 
The gallant McClure is justly entitled to the distinguished credit of having 
been the first to pass from ocean to ocean round the continent; yet, even lie 
cannot be said to have circumnavigated the north end of the continent, since 
a part of the passage was made on foot over the ice. The only expeditions 
that have attempted to reach the Pole, prior to those of this past summer 
were those of Henry Hudson, in 1G07, who reached latitude 81 deg. 30 
min. to the northwest of Spitzbergen; of Phipps, in 1773, who only got to 
latitude 80 degrees 37 minutes north, in the same locality : of Admiral Wran- 
gell, who made an attempt in 1823 by traveling over the ice to the north of 13 
Siberia, reaching latitude 70 deg. 51 min. in longitude 175 deg. 27 min. west, 
where lie saw an open sea, boundless to the vision, toward the Pole; of 
Captains Buchan and Franklin in 1818, who reached lat. 80. deg. 34 min. 
north, near Spitzbcrgcn, and then sailed to the westward along the ice barrier, 
but lost ground (to the southward) as they advanced in that direction till they 
had to abandon their attempt; and of Parry, in 1827, who on reaching the 
ice to the north of Spitzbergen, took to his boats, lifted on runners, and after 
one of flu* most laborious journeys on record, during which lie traveled 
actually live hundred and sixty-eight miles, yet made only seventy-two miles 
on his course to the north from the point where the boats left the water, 
reaching latitude 82 deg. 40 min. 23 sec. north. 
I>11. KANE AND DR. HAYES. 
This was the nearest authentic approach to the Pole, until Dr. Kane’s dis- 
covery of the open sea to the north of Smith’s Sound, in 1854, and 
of Dr. Hayes, who visited this same locality in 18(51, and reached the 
latitude of nearly 83 deg. But in both of these last two cases, journeys of 
from one hundred and fifty to two hundred miles, in a straight line, had to 
be made over the ice, from where the thermometer ranged below zero, before 
reaching this open sea with its water ot a temperature of 3G degrees above 
zero. 
From a careful perusal of all the narratives of those who have made ex- 
plorations in the Northern seas, we find that many discoveries were made, 
which more or less have an important bearing upon tbc subject matter of this 
lecture, and which will be evident as we proceed in our investigations. 
Thus, of the more important were the manner in which the ice, collecting 
for years, forms an impenetrable barrier in certain localities for hundreds of 
miles together ; that it generally adheres to the shores of the main land and 
larger islands; that huge fragments are broken oil' from these accretions by 
the superincumbent accumulations of snow and by the action of the water, 
and fioat oft' in vast masses and are drifted by the currents to the south- 
ward; and glimpses, if not complete discovery, of that open sea which it 
is now generally believed entirely surrounds the Pole. The most important 
discoveries to science, however, were perhaps the determination of llie north 
magnetic Pole by Sir Janies Ross, in 1831, about latitude 70 deg. and longitude 
100 deg. west; the verification of two “Poles of greatest cold,” one amid 
the Parry Islands, north of America, in latitude 78 deg. longitude 03 deg. 
west, and the other north of Asia, in latitude 77 deg. and longitude 1(53 deg. 
east; and the discovery of the open sea at the head of Smith’s Sound by Dr. 
Kane’s expedition, in 1854, and revisited by Dr. Hayes in 18(11—before 
spoken of. 
OI.D NOTION’S EXPLODED. 
This last does away with the old notion of the accumulated ice of ages, 
resting upon and around the Pole, which, in fact, in the natural order of 
things, is a physical impossibility; for, since meteorological observations 
have shown that the average precipitation of moisture in all parts of the 
world is five feet annually, and as it is admitted by the most distinguished 14 
arctic explorer* that the sun has but little influence in dissolving- the ice with- 
in those regions, it is fair to suppose that, were there no other influences at 
work to produce this dissolution, the accretions of ice and snow (from being 
so much less compact than water) would fully equal this average. This being 
the case, then, in the period of six thousand years there would have accumu- 
lated about the Poles, in an area embracing a million and a half of square 
miles, a plateau of ice thirty thousand feet in height 1 
These accumulations of water in a solid form, at the earth’s extremities, 
would not only have materially lowered the level of the uncongealed oceans 
from whence this moisture had been drawn by evaporation, but would also, 
by the withdrawal of such a weight from the central zones of the earth and 
the piling of it up at the extremities, have destroyed the equilibrium or 
balance of the globe. 
There are other agencies, however, besides the direct rays of the sun, con- 
stantly at work winter as well as summer, to keep these seas open, and of 
which we shall speak presently. 
opkx roi.AH SKA. 
It is to this open sea about the Pole that we believe there can be found, a) 
certain seasons of the year, direct and accessible passages for ships, and of 
course thence directly to the Pole itself—for it is an interesting fact in regard 
to this sea, that it has tides which ebb and flow with regularity, showing that 
it has a great area free from land or other permanent obstructions. 
In the transactions of the lloyal Society of London in 1075, it is stated that 
a ship, employed by a party of Dutch merchants to make discoveries in the 
north, had brought back t lie wonderful news that “after having sailed to the 
northeast-ward of Xova Zembla, several hundred leagues between tlie 
parallels of 70 and NO degs., the sea was perfectly open and free from ice.” 
It is also stated, that in 1655, a Dutch whaler sailed in a perfectly free and 
open sea, to within one deg. of the Pole, and that about the same period 
another one had gone two degs. beyond the Pole. These reports I believe, 
notwithstanding it is the fashion to treat them as fables. And l believe 
furthermore, that these vessels succeeded in getting there, simply because 
they followed by accident one of the very pathways which science now point s 
out to us as affording the only gateways to the Pole. It was thought for 
centuries that Columbus was the first. discoverer of America; but it is now 
well known that the Scandinavians and Norsemen had been upon this conti- 
nent nearly five hundred years before he made his voyages. And for three 
hundred years—or ever since these voyages of the Dutch—explorers of every 
description, whether national or individual, have been, and are still in my 
opinion, trying every other avenue but the right ones to reach the Pole and 
circumnavigate the northern extremities of the continents. The histories of 
these explorations were a part of my professional reading for upwards of a 
quarter of a century. The disasters and failures of these expeditions were 
therefore familiar to me, as they are to every intelligent seaman ; but l had 
never given the subject any special attention or study, until it so happened 
that the materials were placed in my hands which led to the delineation of 
the Kuro-Siwo; and then, just as my mind was fdled with intense interest 
at the beautiful harmony and analogy between this magnificent stream and I In! -system of currents of which it forms a pint in the Pacific, with that ofthe 
Gulf stream and its system in the Atlantic, the news was received of Kane's 
discovery of the Open Polar Sea, and people began at once to inquire how 
such a tiling was possible, when it was so well known that a belt of ice several 
hundred miles in width must surround this sea and lie between it and the 
Equator. The charts were upon my table, at which 1 was daily at work, 
showing the Gulf Stream and Kuro-Siwo as they are now exhibited before 
you (except the coloring), with their warm branches or forks extending by 
Spitzbergen and Behrings Straits, and perfectly determined in both their 
width and direction as far as this ice belt is supposed to exist. Now, apply- 
ing the axiom in the physical science ofthe sea, as laid down by Maury, 
that “ whenever a current or stream of water is found flowing from any 
point in the ocean, other streams or currents of equal volume must flow to 
that point,” and knowing that immense currents flowed constantly down 
from the Arctic ocean by every avenue opening into the Atlantic and Pacific, 
except along l lie pathways of these northern forks of the Gulf Stream and 
Kuro-Siwo, it was almost impossible that the idea should not occur to my 
mind that these were the streams that not only carried this excess of water 
to the Pole, but also that the warmth they carried with them was the direct 
and sole cause of this open sea, and that their paths through the ice-belt offer 
the only highways for ships to that sea; and I so stated it in my official re- 
port on the Kuro-Siwo to Commodore Perry. Still impressed with these 
facts, last summer, when 1 heard that expeditions were being fitted out in 
Europe for the Pole. I addressed a communication to the President ofthe 
American Geographical Society of New York, which 1 will now read. You 
will notice a repetition in the letter of some things which have just been pre- 
sented to your consideration. This arises from my having given in the for- 
mer only a general statement of the facts on which I base my theory, whilst 
this evening they have been described more in detail. 
MR. BENT’S THEORY PROPOUNDED. 
Where events relating to the cruise ofthe Preble are referred to, if may 
be well to mention to you that they transpired in 1848-9, some live years 
prior to the discovery and delineation of the Kuro-Siwo as an important part 
ofthe grand system of oceanic currents of the Pacific—the Japan expedition 
having originated from tin* success of the mission ofthe Preble to Japan : 
BETTER TO MR. DALY. 
2020 Olive Street, ) 
St. Louis, Mo., September 15, 1808. j 
('. P. Jin///, Esq., President American Geographical and Statistical Society, 
New York : 
Sir:—Having seen in the papers a brief telegram that "England and Rus- 
sia were about fitting out an expedition for the North Pole,” and having 
given the subject some reflection—or rather, having had the subject forced 
by circumstances upon my mind during past years, I take the liberty of ad- 
dressing you (as the presiding officer of that society in this country which will naturally take tW deepest interest in the plans adopted by the expedi- 
tion as to the route it is to pursue), to state that the result of these reflec- 
tions is the creation of a doubt, in my mind, as to whether former expeditions 
to the Arctic seas have not pursued a mistaken route, in attempting to go by 
the way of Battin Bay instead of Behring’s Straits or Spitsbergen ; and also 
whether, if Captain McClure had stood boldly out to the northward and east- 
ward from Behring’s Straits instead of hugging the north shore of the conti- 
nent, he would not have carried an open sea and a warm current with him 
till reaching the northward of Melville Island, and from thence have had a 
southerly current with him into the Atlantic. 
In other words : whether the expeditions attempting to make the “ North- 
west Passage” have not gone up stream against a hyperborean current, frigid 
in its temperature and tilled with opposing ice, when, by making the North- 
east passage they might have gone down stream and carried with them the 
genial influence of waters directly from the tropics, and perhaps an open path- 
way to the very Pole itself. 
To enable you to understand the process by which my mind was drawn 
gradually to this subject, and the conclusions which have been the result, 
it may not be amiss to enter somewhat into details. These I shall endeavor 
to put into such a shape as to be readily followed and as little tiresome as 
possible; but, before doing so, will premise by saying that the duties of a 
naval officer necessarily oblige him to be more or less observant of the currents 
of the ocean, as well as of the various other meteorological phenomena by 
which he is constantly surrounded; yet it is not always the case that the 
phenomena presenting themselves within the scope of any one person’s ex- 
perience, lead to either complete results, or furnish even sufficient data upon 
which to base a reasonable hypothesis—and whether sucti has not been the 
case in this instance, I, with much diffidence, submit this paper to- your in ■ 
dulgent patience and judgment to decide. 
At the close of the Mexican war in 1848, theU. S. ship Preble, to which I 
was attached as sailing master or navigator, was ordered from California on 
special service to China. In crossing the Pacific ocean we stopped at the 
Sandwich Islands, where we found a large number of American whalers as- 
sembled for the winter. In conversation with one of the most intelligent'ot 
these captains, he told me he was just from a cruise in the Arctic ocean, and 
that in pursuit of whales, he had gone “several hundred miles to the northward 
and eastward from Behring's Straits, and three hundred miles beyond the limits of 
his chart, and with an open sea still before him as far as could be seen in that 
direction." From the Sandwich Islands we kept between the tropics, to avail 
ourselves of the northeast trade winds, and also to take advantage of the 
equatorial current—the latter of which we found setting to the westward at 
the rate or from thirty to eighty miles per day, and which, spreading from 
the tropic of Cancer to that of Capricorn, has a width as great as that of the 
whole Atlantic Ocean. 
I had before crossed this current some eight or ten times, at various seasons 
of the year, and therefore knew, from personal observation, that it is as con- 
stant in its flow to the westward as that of the equatorial current in the At- 
lantic. A tew mouths alter our arrival in China, intelligence was received tromthe 
(Governor General of .lava that a number of shipwrecked American seamen 
were in prison at Nagasaki, in Japan, and the Preble was ordered to proceed 
Oiere at once and endeavor to obtain their release. 
This was in mid-winter, when the northeast mqoiisoon was at its height; 
when no vessels but steamers or opium clippers attempted to make passages 
to the north coastJJb China. 
The almost universal prediction of both Americans and Englishmen at 
Ilong Kong was, that the Preble could not accomplish the voyage at that 
season of the year; but, with genuine pluck, the captain always replied that 
she should do so or else lay her bones in the bottom of the China sea. I men- 
tion this to show bow unknow n were the dangers, and how unfrequented the 
seas at that tinu*, lying between the southern coast of China and .Japan. 
As soon as we got out of port we encountered the full force of, not only the 
monsoon, but also, in a measure, that of the southerly current which Hows 
constantly down the Formosa channel, and which is so strong that sailing 
vessels cannot beat to windward against it. but are obliged to run out to the 
eastward of Formosa, to take advantage of a current setting to the north- 
ward from that point. 
< 'ontending against the lirst of these currents, the Preble was ten or t welvc 
days reaching the south end of Formosa, although the distance is only about 
two hundred and fifty miles. So soon as she doubled the south end of the 
island, and had got out of this current, which we found running to the south- 
ward at the rate of six miles per hour in the channel way, the wind freshened 
into a stiff gale from northeast, compelling us to heave the ship to under 
storm sails, and preventing our getting any observations for latitude and 
longitude for three consecutive days. [This being the case, we did not of 
course know where the ship was, only approximately.] The effect of the 
w ind upon a ship lying to in this way, if uninfluenced by ocean currents, 
would be to drift or drive her to leeward in the direction the wind was blow- 
ing, at the rate of about thirty miles per day. At the expiration of three 
days, therefore, when the storm abated, and land was discovered to the w est- 
ward. we thought it must be the Bashee Islands, which lie some hundred 
miles to the southward of Formosa; but on standing in we found it to be the 
northern end of this latter island, and that we had been actually carried dur- 
ing this time by a current, ninety miles to the northward against the wind 
or one hundred and eighty miles to the northward of where the ship would, 
have been had there been no current, and near five hundred miles to the north 
of where she would have been, had she continued within the influence of the 
southerly current of the Formosa channel. 
After determining our position on the chart, we stood to the eastward foi- 
lin' Loo Choo Islands, running across and out of this northerly current. 
From Loo Choo our course was nearly due north to Nagasaki. In making 
this passage, we found that wcagain crossed the northerly current, but that 
there it was inclining a good deal to the eastward; and we ran out of it as we 
passed under the land of the Japan Islands. After accomplishing the object 
of our mission, we ran to the westward from Nagasaki to Shanghai, and 
thence down the Formosa channel to llong Kong, carrying with us the strong 18 
southerly current before spoken of, although by this time the northeast morfn- 
soon had materially abated. In the following summer the Preble was ordered 
back to California. 
The had then changed, and the wind was from southwest. Yet 
we found the current still setting down the Formosa channel, and on passing 
the south end of Formosa, we again fell at once into the current setting to the 
northward, but which we found curved gradually to the eastward with us, as 
we pursued our course on the arc of a great circle in that direction. This 
course, however, we were obliged to abandon about lat. ,15 deg. N. long. 145 
deg. E., owing to a malignant epidemic that had broken out in the ship, and 
which was aggravated by the fogs and mists that overhung the current. 
The experience of this cruise confirmed the existence of two powerful cur- 
rents which, in a general way, were known to vessels cruising or trading in 
those seas, and which had been briefly noticed by writers upon the subject ; 
but in what way, if at all, they formed a part of the great oceanic, or inter- 
oceanic circulation, was not known, and they consequently formed a bewil- 
dering subject to those who had to encounter them; particularly, as it was 
also known that, only a few miles to the southward of the south end of 
Formosa, the great equatorial current poured its immense volume into the 
China Sea, almost directly at right angles to both of these currents just spoken 
of! And this illustration of their constant flow in fixed and opposite direc- 
tions, regardless of Windsor seasons, their great velocity and their juxta- 
position, were calculated to make a strong impression upon the mind, and 
set it to work to find out their origin and whither they led. 
Sailing again for China and Japan in 1852, in the expedition under Com- 
modore Perry, I had fortunately assigned to me such subjects, for scientific 
and professional investigation, as enabled me to have such instructions issued 
to the various vessels of the squadron as would insure their keeping very 
accurate and full meterological records. 
After our return to the United States, I was detailed to assist Lieut. IV'. L. 
Maury to prepare for publication the charts and sailing directions of the sur- 
veys made by the expedition; and these records were placed in my hands for 
the purpose of tracing out, as far as possible, the location, direction and force 
of the currents in that part of the Pacific and adjacent seas, lying within the 
cruising grounds of the squadron. 
The result of this work was the discovery of the fact that these currents 
formed a part of the great system in the Pacific, identical in all its essential 
features with that of the equatorial current, Gulf Stream, and counter current 
in the Atlantic, as willbesecn by referring to my reportonthe “ Kuro-Siwo,’' 
in the second volume of the Japan expedition report. 
The development of these facts, as the data were placed in available form 
upon the chart, created no small degree of surprise and gratification; and 
naturally led to reflection and inquiry as to where these counter currents of the 
Gulf Stream and Kuro-Siwo had their origin, and how far their compensating 
influences kept up the equilibrium of the Avaters of the ocean. The promin- 
ent features of the subject, as it presented itself to the mind, were very 
marked, and, as before observed, Avere identical in almost all their parts in 
both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Here were the two great currents ot' the world, one in each of these oceans, 
running to the westward along the Equator, and known as the equatorial 
currents. 
That in the Atlantic, after mostly passing into the Gulf of Mexico and 
finding no other outlet, has its whole volume forced out to the eastward along 
the north side of Cuba, until passing the southern extremity of Florida, 
where it is deflected sharp to the northward, along and not far distant from 
the coast of the United States, and forming the Gulf Stream; whilst that in 
the Pacific, in great part passing through the Polynesian Islands and China 
sea, has a large shaving—as it were—torn off its northern side by the south 
end of Formosa, which, with its momentum condensed, is thrown, like the 
Gulf Stream, with increased velocity short to the northward and forming 
the Kuro-Siwo. These two currents, obeying certain physical laws, bend 
gradually to the eastward as they proceed north; but meeting with local ob- 
structions in the continents and islands that lie in their paths, are in great 
part turned to tlie southward, the one along the west coast of 
Europe, and the other along tin; west coast of America; ameliorating 
the climates of both these faces of tin* two continents by their 
genial warmth, and finally falling again into the currents of the Equator. 
Portions of both of these streams, however, pursue their courses to the north- 
ward and eastward into the Arctic ocean; that from the Gulf Stream going 
by the way of Spitzbergen, and that from the Kuro-Siwo by Behring’s Straits. 
The accumulation of water about the Pole, from these two offshoots, must of 
course have an outlet somewhere; and it is here that we find the origin of the 
counter-currents in question—in the hyperborean currents that drain off this 
excess of water about the Pole. The first, finding in its way through the 
passages and channels leading from the Arctic Ocean into Baffin Bay and 
Davis Straits, runs thence down tlufcoast of Labrador, and wedges itself in 
between the Gulf Stream and the coast of the United States, making the 
counter-current to t he Gulf Stream. The second, finding but a narrow passage 
at Behring’s Straits, is, by its greater specific gravity, forced under the warm 
water flowing to the north through these Straits, and reappears at the surface 
again on the coast of Kamschatka, and passes thence down the Japan sea 
and Formosa channel into the China sea, forming the counter-current to the 
Kuro-Siwo. There is also a third current, which flows to the southward 
along the east coast of Greenland, and which bears in its embraces the largest 
of the icebergs that are seen in the North Atlantic, and which underruns the 
Gulf Stream as the latter crosses the Atlantic. The Spitzbergen current, 
flowing to the northward and eastward, with an open sea far to the north- 
ward of the White sea, has been explored by early navigators; whilst that to 
the northward and eastward of Behring’s Straits is known to our whalers, 
as shown by the statements of the captain of one of them, whom I have men- 
tioned as having met at the Sandwich Islands, and which was subsequently 
confirmed by the explorations of Commander John Rogers, of the United 
States North Pacific Exploring expedition, in 1854, and 1855, who penetrated 
to the north of Behring’s Straits in search of Herald Islands—reported by a 
British officer as lying to the northward and westward of those Straits. The 
island was not found, hut an iev barrier was encountered in that direction (X. \V.); but as far as lie went to northward and eastward beyond the Straits, 
he informed me, he had an open sea, with a current flowing to the northward and 
eastward, and with a temperature of the water much above that due to the latitude. 
Now, when we examine the effect of these currents upon the climates of the 
regions of the earth over and near which they pass, and compare the one 
with the other, we find that Lisbon, with the genial climate of Pensacola, is 
in the same latitude as Philadelphia; and London, with the climate of Nor- 
folk, is in the latitude of 52 degrees north—w hilst rhe same marked isothermal 
difference characterizes the opposite shores of the North Pacific; the tem- 
peratures of Europe and the west coast of America being raised by the in- 
fluence of the warm waters of the Gulf Stream and Kuro-Siwofar above that 
due to the latitude, and the east coasts of the United States and Asia being 
correspondingly depressed by the hyperborean currents by which they are 
washed. 
So long as these currents or streams are troughed or bedded in the ocean, 
they radiate or diffuse but little heat beyond their own limits, as shown by 
the thermometric diagrams accompanying my reports on the Kuro-Siwo, 
[2d vol. Japan Ex. Reports,] w here it will be seen that the change in both 
water and air is abrupt upon entering or leaving the stream; and also, in a 
more familiar and striking manner, by a general comparison of their effects 
upon the continents: for wTe find that neither the Gulf Stream nor Kuro-Siw o 
exercise any appreciable ameliorating effect upon the climate of the United 
States and east face of Asia, although these currents lie but a short distance 
off' the coasts; but as soon as they impinge upon and wash the shores of 
Europe and Oregon and California, they give out heat enough to change tin* 
climate of half of both the continents; whilst the cold currents bringing their 
frigid temperature from the Arctic ocean, and intervening between the Gulf 
Stream and the United States in the one case, and the Ivuro-Siw-o and Asia 
iu the other, give climatic rigor to the coasts they wash. 
Now, since these streams possess such a wonderful pow er of retaining their 
heat, so long as they do not touch the land, as to raise the climatic tempera- 
ture 30 or 40 degrees over half a continent lying eight thousand miles dis- 
tant from the points in the Tropics from w hence they spring, and from which 
they derive their heat, it does not seem unreasonable to believe that those 
portions of the streams which pursue their courses direct into the Arctic 
Ocean, carry with them warmth enough Jnot only (to dissolve the ice they 
encounter, and keep their pathways open all through the year, but also, to 
raise the temperature permanently above the freezing point of a large area of 
the sea around the Pole, and thus prevent this extremity of the earth becom- 
ing locked iu eternal ice, and overburdened, in the lapse of ages, with the ac- 
cumulations of snow precipitated from the winds, loaded witli moisture 
taken up by evaporation, and carried thence from more southern and wanner 
regions of the earth’s surface. I am of the opinion that the open sea seen by 
Dr. Kane’s expedition in 81 deg. north latitude, with a temperature of the 
water of 3(1 deg. (whilst a hundred and twenty miles to the south the 
thermometer was GO deg. below zero), was the southern shore of this open 
sea that I suppose to exist about the Pole. 
Dr. Kane called at my office in New York after his return from this ex- pedition, in 1S5G, when I had just tinished my work on the Kuro-Siwo. and 
I suggested to him that the open sea discovered hy him most likely owed its 
existence to the Gulf *Streain and Kuro-Siwo. lfe seemed impressed by the 
tacts presented to him, and in his narrative, vol. 1. p. 309, when discussing 
the probable causes of this open sea, he not only admits the possibility of such 
being the case, but speaks of it as being altogether likely. 
Since writing the foregoing, I have, hy a singular coincidence, this morn- 
ing received a periodical from Messrs. Richardson & Co., publishers, No. 4 
Bond street. New York, which contains an article by M. F. Maury, LL. L>., 
on ** Russian America—its Physical Geography,” that so strongly corrobo- 
rates the ground-work of my hypothesis, that I cannot do better than to ap- 
pend it entire as a part of this communication, feeling that my own crude 
ideas, so indifferently expressed, only borrow a character, from this accidental 
indorsement, that they would not have otherwise possessed. I learn also 
(from newspaper telegram) that a private yacht sailed during the past sum- 
mer forthe Pole, by the way of Spitzbergen. She is on the right track, and 
il she is a steamer, and follows the water thermometer rather than the com- 
pass. she will most likely accomplish her object; and her return may be looked 
for any day this month or next. 
In conclusion, I have merely to say: if my theory proves unworthy the con- 
sideration of your learned association, why, there the matter will most probably 
cud ; but if it is correct, then I hope my humble suggestions may, in Cod's 
Providence, be the means of averting the recurrence of some of the sad 
calamities that have attended former expeditions, and perhaps facilitate the 
solution of the great geographical problem which has so long occupied the at- 
tention of men of science. 
With renewed assurances of the unaffected diffidence with which 1 have 
ventured to w rite you on this subject, 1 am. very respectfully, 
Your obedient servant, 
SILAS BENT. 
P. S.—1 send also a skeleton chart of the Northern hemisphere, with the 
warm currents traced in red, and the cold currents in blue. 
mu. daly’s kepi.y. 
[Copy.] 
Amkhk a\ Geographical and Statistical I 
Society, New Yoke, Oct. 8, 18(18. 
Deaii Sin:—1 beg leave to acknowledge the receipt of your communica- 
tion. I have read it with a great deal of interest, and will place it before the 
Society at the earliest possible opportunity. 
The yacht to w hich you refer, that attempted the passage by the Spitzbergen 
route, has returned to Bergen, but we are not advised of the cause. 
I will see that you are duly advised of the opinion expressed upon your 
paper. 
Very truly yours. 
Cl I AS. P. DALY, 
Silas Beat, Esq. 22 
DIGRESSION—CLIMATIC INFLUENCE OF OCEAN CURRENTS. 
Encouraged by this very polite note, I sent Mr. Daly another communica- 
tion, which I will read after a short digression. 
It you will pardon the interruption, I will here say that when contemplating 
this chart, with all these great currents of the ocean made apparent to the 
eye at one glance, and recalling to mind the climates, as I have experienced 
them, in almost every portion of the earth bordering upon the oceans be - 
tween the latitudes of GO deg. north and south, I cannot divest myself of the 
conviction that all countries so situated derive their climatic character—when- 
ever that differs from what is due to the latitude—entirely from the ocean cur- 
rents that wash their coasts, and not at all from those which, though flowing near 
them, do not touch their shores. To show you the grounds upon which I base 
this conclusion, I will ocupy your attention for a few moments whilst 1 
endeavor to lay them before you. We will start with what is known as the 
Humboldt current, which, coming from the Antarctic ocean, and possibly 
splitting on Cape Horn, flows with its greatest volume to the northward along 
the whole west coast of South America. The climate there is cool, and as 
you approach the Equator the temperature is so much below what is due to 
the latitude, that at Lima, in 12 deg. south latitude, woolen clothing is ne- 
cessary for comfort during several months of (he year, and the heat is never 
oppressive. The common belief is that this is owing to the close proximity 
of the Andes; but, as like causes produce like effects, if this were the case 
the Sierra Nevada, which lies almost as near to the coasts of California and 
Mexico as the Andes do to those of Chili and Peru, Avould give similar cool 
climates to those countries; but this they do not possess, for on the con- 
trary they have warm climates, derived, as before stated, from the influence 
of the Kuro-Siwo. The Kuro-Siwo, from having been in contact with the land 
in high latitudes, which robbed it freely of its warmth, reaches the equatorial 
belt with a comparatively low temperature, but still not so low as that of the 
Humboldt current from the South; consequently we find the Sandwich Islands, 
in 22 deg. north latitude, with very nearly the same climate as the Marquesas 
group, lying only ten degrees south of the equator—both being within the 
immediate region of confluence of these two streams, where they form the 
great equatorial current of the Pacific; and these Islands stand unrivaled in 
their delightful climates by any other spots on the earth’s surface. We will 
now start west with the equatorial current, the waters of which are but just 
brought under the direct rays of the sun, from wliiclij they continue to ac- 
cumulate heat so long as they remain within the tropics. 
ACCUMULATIVE HEAT. 
We come first to the Ladrone Islands, which have a much warmer climate 
than the two groups just spoken of; then to the Philippine Islands, where the 
heat is quite oppressive even in winter, but which increases in fervor as we 
reach Malacca—is all aglow in India, and becomes stifling in its intensity as 
these waters, after traveling fifteen thousand miles, and being fully three hun- 
dred days under a vertical sun, arc thrown against the eastern shores of 
Africa. Here this current is deflected to the southward to the Cape of Good Hope, from whence it starts witli its burden of heat to keep an “open sea” 
about, t lie South Pole. It does not double round this Cape and llowto the 
northward on the west coast of Africa, as stated by Dr. Hayes, in his paper 
recently read before the Geographical Society of New York, and of which 1 shall 
have occasion to speak again presently,—although there is a current there rim- 
ing in that direction, for Sir James Ross, in 1842, discovered that these were 
two distinct currents: that to the east of tlie_Cape, flowing'south, being a 
hot current from the tropics, as just described, whilst that to the west of the 
( ape flowing north is a cold Antarctic current; and this has been confirmed 
by more recent observations, taken at the instigation of Admiral Maury; 
and also—to my mind—by the marked difference of climate found on this 
west coast, compared with that we have just left on the east side of Africa. 
This Polar current continues north until reaching the Torrid Zone and 
meeting the reflux of the Gulf Stream, when the two uniting, form the 
equatorial current of the Atlantic. Du Cliaillu. in his work on Africa, gives 
1 lie mean temperature in latitude 1 degree 30 south, from October to June, 
and embracing the warmest part of the year, as 77 degrees—the highest range 
being 88 degrees, and the lowest 0<i degrees. These observations extended 
from the coast two ffiotuKwfmiles inland. This cl larming climate, directly 
under the Equator, is, I am satisfied, owing to this current from the South. 
Now, continuing west again from this point some two thousand miles, brings 
u< toBrazil, with its fervid climate; but as the waters of the equatorial current, 
when reaching there, have been comparatively but a short time directly 
under the sun. the thermometer shows no such intense heat as that on the 
east coast of Africa. This current now dividing on Cape St. Roque, the 
larger portion flows into the Carribean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, to form the 
Gulf Stream; whilst the other is deflected south, and gives a so much milder 
climate to the east coast of South America than we found on the west, that 
cattle, which run wild on the Falkland Islands, in latitude 52 degrees south, 
subsist by grazing all the year round. 
Cl'll 11E NT AT CAPE HORN. 
We now come to Cape Horn. And here again, Dr. Hayes, probably 
misled by some of the standard atlases, has fallen into another error in sup- 
posing this current to double round the Cape, and form the Humboldt current 
first referred to in this digression, for the water thermometer tells a different 
story ; and, as an additional proof that the Humboldt current comes from the 
Antarctic Ocean, I have myself seen an iceberg brought by this current to 00 
degrees south latitude, which, in size, was far beyond any I have ever seen 
described in the northern seas; and, on one occasion, in passing from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific, in one of the tinest frigates in the navy, we were 
twenty-one days beating and struggling against this current and the wind, 
before we doubled the Cape; and on another I was a fortnight before we 
thought it safe to stretch away into the Pacific, and both times ran as far as 
(50 degrees south latitude. In the absence, therefore, of more positive data 
than I have here given, I think it not unreasonable to believe that the 
same phenomenon of currents will be found to exist here, that has been 
described at the Cape of Good Hope; and that whilst the Humboldt current comes from the Antarctic Ocean, and flows north along the west coast of 
South America, the warm branch of the equatorial current of the Atlantic, 
which we have followed down the east coast from Brazil, continues its course; 
to the southward and eastward into the South Polar Sea. But, whether the 
Humboldt current is a recurvation of the Australian Stream, or comes from 
the inter-Polar Ocean, we have no data to determine. 
The same general system of currents, I am satisfied, will be found to exist 
iu the Southern Hemisphere, that has been described in the Northern; 
modified, of course, to conform to the widely different geographical 
character of the southern extremity of the earth from that of the northern. 
In crossing over from the south side of Australia to New Zealand, Sir James 
Boss found the Australian Stream to be three hundred miles in width at that 
point, with a high temperature, and setting strongly to the southward and 
eastward. Vessels bound from Australia to Cape Horn, or from the Cape of 
Good Hope to Australia,keep well to the southward, about the parallel of of) de- 
grees, in order to avail themselves of the eastwardly currents known to be 
there, and which, I have no doubt, are the recurvations of the Australian and 
Good Hope Streams; they, like the Gulf Stream and Kuro-Siwo, throwing 
only small portions of their volume into the Polar Sea, whilst the larger mass 
recurves and falls again into the equatorial currents on the opposite sides of 
the oceans from whence they spring. 
THK CLIMATE OF ITALY. 
Of the oceanic coasts of the northern hemisphere I have before spoken, but 
not of those of the Mediterranean, and to which I will now call your atten- 
tion. Naples, in Southern Italy, is in the same latitude as New York and 
Genoa, and Marseilles about the same parallel as Toronto—yet, at Genoa 1 
have plucked ripe oranges from the tree early in February, and Naples has 
(“veil a much more vernal climate. This is attributed to the warm winds from 
Africa; but, as you will observe, these winds have to cross the Mediterranean 
at its widest part, a distance of more than three hundred miles. Now, if tin* 
winds have such influence as this, why should not those from the perpetual 
snows of the Alps give a severe climate to the plains of France and Italy, 
which lie directly at their feet and not fifty miles from this snow ? Yet these 
plains, in the latitude of Maine, are verdant with a perennial summer. The 
winds, therefore, are not the agencies that produce this, but rather the warm 
waters of the Gulf Stream, which, as a surface current, flows constantly into 
the Mediterranean through the Straits of Gibralter, and with such velocity 
too, that when the wind is from the westward, sailing vessels are unable, 
sometimes for weeks together, to pass out into the Atlantic. But, even 
admit that the winds from Africa are the cause, then whence does northern 
Africa, with its latitude of 154 degrees north, obtain such an excess of heat, 
as to be able to throw ofl‘ enough across the whole width of the Mediterra- 
nean to change so materially the climate of such an immense region as this? 
It cannot be derived directly from the sun, for Du Chaillu, as before shown, 
found a lower average of temperature within one degree of the Equator than 
is enjoyed in Italy. But, it may be said, northern Africa being a desert, 
will ace mill for its being so much hotter than the region visited by Du 4'haillu. This, no doubt, has its effect, but not to the extent necessary 
to produce such results; for I have been in this desert, and also in the jungles 
of Ceylon and India, when* the rank grow th of vegetation was so dense that 
tin* sun's rays never reached the soil, yet the latter were hotter than the 
former, because, as before shown, the waters of the Indian Ocean are hotter 
than those of the Mediterranean. The latter, however, are sufficiently 
warm, when bathing the shores of Spain, France and Italy, to diffuse heat 
enough to give them the delicious tropical climates they enjoy. 
INTERNATIONAL IMl'OKTANCK OF TIIK THEORY. 
Pursuing these reflections, this matter presents a phase of international 
importance which, were it not for the inhumanity of possessing such a 
power, might place the whole of Europe at the mercy of this country. For. 
admitting that Europe derives its mild climate from the Gulf Stream, which 
no one now, I believe, disputes, then to divert this stream from its present 
direction, would be to bring the whole of Europe at once, so to speak, to its 
normal climatic condition: that is, France and Austria would have the 
climate of Canada; and England, Germany, and Northern Europe would 
become a frozen wilderness, such as British America and Labrador. To 
accomplish this, the possession of the Isthmus of Panama, and the expendi- 
ture of two or three hundred millions of dollars in the excavation of a 
sufficient width and depth of the rock only, that intervenes between the 
Carribean Sea and the Pacific, and the opening of a small sluice through the 
soil, to afford a beginning for the passage of the water from ocean to ocean— 
and but a short time would probably elapse before the channel would be large 
enough to give a new outlet to the equatorial waters of the Atlantic, and thus 
cut oft’ that excess which now goes to make the Gulf Stream. 
SECOND LETTER TO MR. DALY. 
2020 Olive Street, St. Louis, Get. 12, ISOS. 
('has. F. Duly. Ksy., President American Geographical and Statistical Society. 
New York : 
Dear Sir : Your kind favor of the 8th instant is received, and I pray you 
to accept my cordial acknowledgements for your courteous attention. 1 am 
much gratified to learn that my communication has been found by you worthy 
of being submitted to your Society. 
I shall watch with interest for accounts of the causes of failure in the recent 
attempt of the yacht to reach the Pole by the way of Spitzbergen, though 1 
expect to hear that—like Parry and other explorers—she endeavored to steer 
directly Aorth after getting to the eastward of Spitzbergen, instead of keeping 
on to the northward and eastward, along the patli of the Gulf Stream, until 
getting fully into the open sea. This was the mistake made by Parry in 1827, 
who crossed the warm current of the Gulf Stream, setting strongly to the 
north-east before reaching Spitzbergen; and, after getting to the northward 
of these islands, lie fought persistently against the south-eastw ardly set of the 
hyperborean current, which he then fell in with, and which, if followed, 
would have carried him back into the Gulf Stream, and perhaps given him a 26 
much better chance of accomplishing his object with his ship than he found 
in his sledge boats; for, on his return to his ship, after his failure with the 
boats and sledges, he found, to his surprise, the sea all open to the northward 
and eastward, and apparently affording, in his opinion—as expressed in his 
narrative—access for his ship to as high a latitude in that direction as he had 
reached in his laborious journey over the ice. 
In my former communication, my hypothesis that the Gulf Stream and 
Kuro-Siwo keep pathways open at all seasons to the Pole, should perhaps be 
qualified with an exception as to the early summer, when icebergs and field 
ice are both doubtless driven by the winds and counter currents well into, if 
not across, these streams, as they are into the Gulf Stream in the North At- 
lantic, and interrupting, in this way. a free passage for the time being, but 
which never form a permanent or solid ice barrier across these streams. On 
that account, it may be that the summer is not the best season for making the 
attempt to reach the open sea; hut that the early syring, before the ice is de- 
tached from its winter fastenings, is the time best calculated for success. That 
there is an open sea, with a temperature permanently above the freezing point, 
surrounding the North Pole (and the South Pole, too, for that matter), I have 
no doubt. 
If this is the case, to reach the Pole, then, it must be done in ships; and the 
only avenues by which they can enter this Polar Sea is by following the Gulf 
Stream or Kuro-Siwo in their north-eastwardly courses to that sea. These 
afford the only accessible channels or gateways through the ice surrounding 
this sea; and to find and to follow these the water thermometer is the only 
guide. Nor must the surface temperature be wholly relied upon; for Captain 
Rodgers—whom I have before spoken of—mentioned to me the remarkable 
fact that north-east of Behrings Straits he found the water lying in layers of 
temperature: first a cool, then a warm, and beneath that a cold stratum of 
water. 
For a time I was at a loss to account for this; but, upon subsequent reflec- 
tion, it occurred to me that this was a natural arrangement of waters of differ- 
ent specific gravities: that of the lowest temperature, being the densest, clings 
to the bottom; the warmest water, from the salt it contains, being next in 
weight, overlies the first; and then the cool, fresh water, formed by the dis- 
solution of the ice, floats on the surface, and is carried with and becomes a 
part of the current immediately underlying it. 
This arrangement seems, too, to be a wise provision of nature, by which 
the warm current is insulated, as it were, to prevent too great a loss of its 
temperature whilst passing the region of ice; but which, after reaching the 
open sea, and, having by that time warmed the water above it, spreads out, 
whilst at rest for a time about the Pole, and throws off, by the atmosphere, 
much of its warmth before starting on its return course to the South again. 
So it will he seen that a submarine temperature, by the use of Six's ther- 
mometer, should be taken, as well as the surface temperature, whenever the 
latter is not above that of the atmosphere. 
With renewed thanks for your goodness, I remain, very respectfully, your 
obedient servant, 
SILAS BENT. COMMENTS ON THE FACTS. 
Tlir yacht referred to in these letters proved to be the *• Germania,” of Bre- 
men ; and, as I apprehended, she did try to go directly north from Spitzbergen; 
and, when she encountered the ice, instead of following its trend to the east- 
ward, she followed it to the westward ; and finally, from latitude 80 deg. 30 
min. north, in longitude li deg. 35 min. east, she found herself beaten back to 
latitude 73 deg. 23 min. north, longitude 17 deg. 30 min. west, before she got 
sight of the Greenland coast; then, turning to the north-east again, she was 
enabled to reach the latitude of 81 deg. 05 min. north, in longitude 16 deg. 
east, on the 14th of September; showing that the farther she receded from 
tlie path of the Gulf Stream, the more the ice was found to encroach to the 
southward; whilst the nearer she approached that path, the farther north she 
was enabled to get. But by this time the season was too far spent to admit 
of a longer prosecution of her voyage, and she was obliged to return, baffled 
in her enterprise. This last letter of mine to Mr. Italy has not been answered; 
but, on November 12th last, the distinguished explorer, Dr. Isaac J. Hayes, 
a member of the Geographical Society, delivered an address before that body 
on the “ Progress of Arctic Discovery,” in which he alluded to my communi- 
cations; and, although he admits that the currents set to the northeast from 
Behring's Straits, and through the sea lying between the Spitzbergen and 
Norway, yet he says the ice is closely impacted in both of these directions; 
but upon what authority I am unable to discover. I am inclined to believe 
that my letters were referred to him by the President of the Society, and that 
he has failed to see the point or gist of my theory; for, in speaking of (he 
Gulf Stream route, he said: “ But the disastrous voyage of Willoughby caused 
the English to abandon the effort to penetrate in that quarter; and the Dutch, 
who succeeded them, in the unhappy Barentz, and the destruction of his ship, 
lost the bright hopes with which they had assumed the undertaking.” The 
history of these voyages, however, shows that they were both undertaken in 
the interest of commerce, to discover a north-east passage from Europe to 
(fiiina—that of Willoughby in 1553, and that of Barentz in 1596; and that their 
mission was not toward the Pole further than the conformation of the north 
line of the continent might necessarily carry them; and, as they knew nothing 
of the Gulf Stream, its direction or influence, they clung to the coast, 
naturally supposing that the farther south they kept, the milder would be the 
climate. This led them down into the bight between Lapland and Nova 
Zembla, and entirely out of the genial influence of the Gulf Stream, where 
t heir ships were respectively frozen in, and where they and most of their crews 
miserably perished. 
This, however, can hardly be called an attempt to follow the path of the 
Gulf Stream. 
DOGMAS OF DK. HAYES. 
The Doctor then disposes of the Behring’s Straits route even more sum- 
marily and less satisfactorily, to my mind, than he does of that of the Gulf 
Stream; and, in advocacy of the route by Smith’s Sound, which he has pur- 
sued on his former expeditions, and by which he reached the open Polar Sea, 
'tis true, but only by traveling over the ice some hundred and fifty miles 28 
beyond where his vessel was frozen in—lie says : “ And now let me assert one 
more dogma as part of the general proposition : A successful prosecution of 
this exploration must he in the direction against the current, and towards the 
point where the open water makes from the northward; where the land gives 
you holding ground ; where the ice drifts past you ; where hope lies ahead : 
where the enemy sets, not with you on your track, hut behind you ; where a 
Meld of iee once passed is rid of.” 
The Doctor shows himself a sanguine man, w hen he can draw such a hope- 
ful picture, and lay down such an emphatic dogma, in the face of the thous- 
ands of lives, the millions upon millions of money, and the three hundred 
years of time, that have been spent in fruitless attempts to penetrate the ice- 
belt against the current, as he here proposes. But 1 think the prospect is not 
very encouraging for speedy success in that direction. 
EXPERIENCE AM) HYPOTHESIS. 
Dr. Hayes’ experience in his gallant explorations, however, is deserving 
of every consideration; and tins 1 most cheerfully accord him. 1 have none to 
offer in support of my theory; for, although I have been to the regions of ice- 
bergs, both North and South, yet I have never been engaged in any Polar ex- 
plorations. My views are purely hypothetical, but are based upon the opera- 
tion of certain physical laws, the observation and study of which for near 
thirty years have taught me to read as I have now set them before you. 
Whether they are right or not. will be determined when, in the providence of 
Him who framed those laws, it becomes His w ill that this great geographical 
problem shall at last be solved. 
And now, in conclusion, to sum up the points of my argument, V? to 
show their bearing upon my theory : 1 must beg to remind you of the com- 
parison made between the circulation of the blood of the animal system, and 
that of the waters of the oceans—showing that the one is governed by laws as 
immutable and unvarying as that of tin- other ; the marked resemblance be- 
tween the Gulf Stream and the Kuro-Siwo—these two great arteries of the 
two great oceans of the world, the Atlantic and Pacific ; that the greater por- 
tion of both these streams recurves on the opposite sides of the oceans to those 
from which they start, but that large portions of both of them continue their 
courses to the north-east, into the Arctic Ocean; that this north-east course is 
due to a physical law, which, continuing to operate upon these streams after 
getting beyond the land of the continents, keeps them on this course until, by 
the junction of their waters about the Pole, their motion is lost; that they re- 
fuse, from want of affinity, to mingle with the sea water through which they 
pass; that they give out and diffuse their heat freely when coming in contact 
with the land, but retain it in a wonderful manner so long as troughed or 
bedded in the oceans; that this heating power is so great, that, if concen- 
trated from either stream, it would be capable of melting and keeping in flow 
a river of iron equal in volume to that of the Mississippi, and that they do ac- 
tually change the climate of nearly one-quarter of the globe ; that, whilst it is 
notoriously admitted by every geographer (and is so represented on all maps) 
that these streams are perfectly defined to the very threshold of tin* iee girdle that .surrounds the Polar Sea; that they assault that girdle in the oblique direc- 
tion of their courses to the north-east; that they have been entirely delineated, 
and are easily traced, by the water thermometer; and yet, incredible as it may 
appear, it is nevertheless the fact, that 1 have not found a single instance on 
record in which any explorer has ever attempted'to trace and follow these 
streams through that ice.' 
Now, I repeat my belief, that the North Pole has already been reached— 
that it was done in the seventeenth century, by the Dutch whalers before spo- 
ken of, and that they reached there by having unconsciously followed the path 
of the Gulf Stream; and I therefore reiterate the convictions expressed in 
my communications to the President of the Geographical Society: “ That 
the Gulf Stream and Kuro-Siwo are the prime and only cause of the open sea about 
the Pole, with its temperature so much above that due to the latitude:—that the 
only practicable avenues by which ships can reach that sea, and thence to the Pole, 
■is by following the warm waters of these streams into that sea—that to find and fol- 
low these streams, the water thermometer is the only guide, and that for this rea- 
son they may be jus*y termed “ Tuk Titermometric Gateways to tiif. Pole.” MR. BENT’S LECTURE. 
From the Democrat of January ‘2*2, 1869. 
Mercantile Library Hall was quite well filled last evening by a very select 
audience, who listened for more than two hours to Captain Silas Jlent’s 
Lecture on theOpen Polar Sea, which was replete with interest, and illustrated 
by gigantic diagrams. So clear, so conclusive, and so scientific an analysis of 
the thermoinetrical influence of the great oceanic currents has, perhaps, 
never been given, as that offered by our distinguished fellow-citizen; and 
their effect upon climates, and the polar region was shown so clearly that 
every one could comprehend. We gave a synopsis of the main points of the 
paper, when it was first read before the Historical Society, a few weeks since, 
and it has so permanent a value and so popular an adaptation that we shall 
report it in full in our Sunday morning’s paper. Further notice now is 
therefore unnecessary. 
THE LECTURE. 
From the Republican of January 1 869. 
A large and intelligent audience assembled in the Mercantile Library Hall 
last evening, to hear the lecture of Mr. Silas Bent on * ‘Routes to the North 
Pole.” It formed a most interesting entertainment. The delivery of Mr. 
Bent is animated and unrestrained, and his enunciation remarkably distinct. 
By the aid of a globe and various extensive maps, the lecturer illustrated his 
subject in a clear and simple manner, and accommodated it to the comprehen- 
sion of all the spectators. The North Pole is invested with an exciting and, 
we might say, a romantic interest, and Mr. Bent’s lecture is full of important 
facts respecting the mysteries of the region of ice, abounds in passages of 
graphic description, and presents a full history of the many attempts to solve 
the problem of the Northwest passage to India. The lecture is somewhat 
lengthy, hut the attention of the audience was kept thoroughly alive. 
CAPTAIN BENT’S LECTURE. 
From tin- Dispatch of January ISO!*. 
A large and intelligent audience met at the Mercantile Library Hall last 
evening, to hear Captain Silas Bent’s learned and interesting lecture on the 
Open Polar Sea. The lecture was as learned, clear and instructive a discourse 
as was ever delivered in the Hall. By the aid of astronomical and philosophic 
apparatus, the speaker so clearly demonstrated his meaning as to be well 
understood by all present. Some of the descriptions were very graphic, par- 
ticularly when treating of the celebrated Gulf Stream, and of the Kuro-Siwo, 
or the Black Sea of the Japanese. The lecture lasted for about two hours, 
hut was of so interesting a character and so well delivered that the attention 
of the audience was sustained until the close. SiUPPOSEI) OPEIV SEA 
MAP OF THE 
WORLD, 
(M E RCAT O R’S PRO.JE CTI ON) 
> Showing the principal 
_ SURFACE CURRENTS_ 
i —~ OK TH ~ |," 
OCEANS &THERM03IETRIC 
GAT EW \\ H “IT 
TO THE " " - 
JORTH POCK. 
~ ficiioiti atiiit Address ol‘ 
SI L*AS BK JfT. 
Explanations: 
'Die tied Colorinj indicates Harm Hater, I 
•> Blue '• Ice X- t~oht llldri: 
•’ .in'ouvs/irnrthe direction v/ Cii /rents.