Henry Newton Dickson

“ On clearing the land south of the Cape the waters of the Agulhas current meet those of the west wind drift of the Southern Ocean, and mingle with them in such a manner as to produce, by interdigitation, alternate strips of warm and cold water, which are met with at great distances south-west and south of the Cape. Between South Africa and Australia the waters form a part of the great west wind drift. ”

“ The margin of the Red Sea itself consists, on the Arabian side, of a strip of low plain backed by ranges of barren hills of coral and sand formation, and here and there by mountains of considerable height. The greater elevations are for the most part formed of limestones, except in the south, where they are largely volcanic. The coasts of the Gulf of Akaba are steep, with numerous coral reefs on both sides. On the African side there are in the north wide stretches of desert plain, which towards the south rise to elevated tablelands, and ultimately to the mountains of Abyssinia. ”

“ Hence the Mediterranean region is characteristically one of winter rains, the distinctive feature becoming less sharply defined from south to north, and the amount of total annual fall increasing in the same direction. The climate becomes more continental in type from west to east, but there are great local irregularities—the elevated plateaus of Algeria and Spain cause a rise of pressure in winter and delay the rainy seasons: the rains set in earlier in the west than in the east, and the total fall is greater. ”

“ The current movement in the Gulf of Mexico consists of a rotational movement in the direction of the hands of a watch, the branch of the equatorial current which enters the Caribbean Sea passing into the Gulf by the Strait of Yucatán and issuing from it by the Strait of Florida as the Gulf Stream, which unites with the remainder of the northward moving water, forming the Antilles current. ”

“ Autumn is warmer than spring, especially in the coastal regions, and this is exaggerated in the eastern region by local land winds, which replace the cool sea-breezes of summer: overcoats are ordinarily worn in Spain and Italy till July, and are then put aside till October. Local winds form an important feature in nearly all the coast climates of the Mediterranean, especially in winter, where they are primarily caused by the rapid change of temperature from the sea to the snow-clad hinterlands. ”

“ During the northern summer the south-west monsoon, which is sufficiently strong to bring navigation practically to a standstill except for powerful steamers, sets up a strong north-easterly drift in the Arabian Sea, and the water removed from the east African coast is replaced by the upwelling of cold water from below ”

“ The northers sometimes blow with terrific force and are at times accompanied by rain. The form and position of the Gulf of Mexico exercise a profound influence on the climate of the whole of the southern and south-eastern states of the Union, and indeed of the greater part of North America. ”

“ On the west and south coasts of Sweden, and in the Skagerrak south-east of Norway, navigation is interfered with by ice only in severe winters, and then the ice is usually drifting, compact sea-ice being very rare. Between Stockholm and Visby navigation usually ceases at the end of December and begins again about the 10th of April. During very severe winters the Åland Sea is covered with thick ice available for traffic. The south part of the Gulf of Bothnia is covered with ice every winter along the coasts, but rarely, if ever, in its central part. ”

“ The west wind drift sends a stream northwards along the west coast of Australia, the West Australia current, the homologue of the Benguela current in the South Atlantic. The principal feature in the circulation in the depths of the Indian Ocean is a slow movement of Antarctic water northwards along the bottom to take the place of that removed from the surface by evaporation, and by currents in the lower latitudes. ”

“ The western Mediterranean is cut off by a bank crossing the narrow strait between Sicily and Cape Bon, usually known as the Adventure Bank, on which the depth is nowhere 200 fathoms. The mean depth of the western basin is estimated at 881 fathoms, and the deepest sounding recorded is 2040 fathoms. In the eastern Mediterranean the mean depth is nearly the same as in the western basin. The Sicilian-Ionian basin has a mean depth of 885 fathoms, and the Levant basin, 793 fathoms. Deep water is found close up to the coast of Sicily, Greece, Crete and the edge of the African plateau. ”

“ A line of levels from Swinemünde through Eger to the Adriatic showed the Level.mean level of the surface of the Baltic to be 0·499 metres (1·6 ft.) above that of the Adriatic Sea. The mean level of the surface of the Baltic rises about 0·5 metres (1·6 ft.) from the coast of Holstein to Memel, probably as a result of the prevailing westerly winds; this mean difference is exceeded with strong westerly winds, and disappears or is reversed with easterly winds. The waves of the Baltic are usually short and irregular, often dangerous to navigation. ”

“ The zoological collections of the “Pola” expeditions show that certain well-defined districts are extremely rich in plankton, while others are correspondingly poor; and it appears that the latter occur in districts surrounded by currents of relatively low temperature, while the richer parts are where the movements of water are blocked by irregularities in the coast-line. ”

“ Along the line of the equator the Indian counter-current flows eastwards all the year round, acting as compensation to the great Equatorial current flowing westwards between the parallels of 7° and 20° S. The equatorial current, on meeting the northern extremity of Madagascar, sends a branch southwards along the east coast of that island, sometimes called the Mascarene current. ”

“ Throughout this northern part, i.e. to the banks of Suakin and Farsan in 20° N, the 100-fathom line keeps to a belt of coral reef close inshore, but in lower latitudes the shallow coral region, 300 m. long and 70 to 80 m. across, extends farther and farther seaward, until in the latitude of Hodeda the deep channel (marked by the 100-fathom line) is only 20 m. broad, all the rest of the area being dangerous to navigation, even for small vessels. In the middle of the gradually narrowing channel three depressions are known to exist ”

“ From March to September the prevailing winds are the north-east trades; these undergo considerable modification on account of the configuration of the surrounding land, and the rains which accompany them are interrupted by spells of calm thick weather, and rarely by northerly winds known as Nortes del hueso Colorado and Chocolateros. ”

“ Cold dry winds, often of great violence, occur in the Rhone valley (the Mistral) , in Istria, and Dalmatia (the Bora) , and in the western Caucasus. In summer a north-west “trade” wind, the Maestro, occurs in the Adriatic. ”

“ The Indian Ocean receives few large rivers, the chief being the Zambezi, the Shat-el-Arab, the Indus, the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Irawadi. Murray estimates the total land area draining to the Indian Ocean at 5,050,000 geographical square miles, almost the same as that draining to the Pacific. The annual rainfall draining from this area is estimated at 4380 cubic miles. ”

“ The favourite trawling-grounds are the Dogger Bank in winter, and the shallow waters off the Continental coasts in summer; these yield halibut, soles, turbot, brill, plaice, cod, haddock, whiting, &c. ”

“ G. de Geer, Om Skandinaviens nivåförändringar under quartärperioden (Stockholm, 1888) ; R. Sieger, Seeenschwankungen und Strandverschiebungen in Skandinavien (Berlin, 1893) ; O. Pettersson, "Review of Swedish Hydrographic Research," Scottish Geographical Magazine (1894) ”