GULF STREAM AND BRITAIN'S DROUGHT.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3134, 11 September 1922, Page 2

GULF STREAM AND BRITAIN'S DROUGHT.

Americ-aii eng in coring: which is supposed to have a.lkvcd' the course of the (hi'! Stream is blamed here for Fn;;I; ill (i' s hoi «(■;,. (her. i,ike last year. s| : inp: Inoke early, and lor a month tin weather has heen sweltering and all heal records have heen broken. Kx!u-•• t-s in trying in discover the cause are a.-king these questions; "lias America altered the Ikritish china Ie k" "Are the- new lad summers due in a change in the diivelion of the (inlf SI ream "lias the chance in the Stream heen caused hy the sea railway from the (ip end of Florida to- Key West ?" Some el these questions are answered w ih an emphatic yes hy John Harrison, el (he Chipham Observatory. In a ietier to the I)i,i!y Express he says; ‘‘The ( mir-e ol the (lull Stream lias heen chanced within the last few years' hy the eeii'-l.ruction of a railway seventy mile- long from the coast of Florida to kicy \N e- 1 . Although some portion of the railway is constructed on piles a Treat and increasing part of it consists <l a '•■( did embankment and the whole : 'Hect is to narrow considerably on its western sale the Florida channel outlet thronch which the (lull Stream flows, Hms at mice concentratine the waters '■l that stream and giving i[| ( , )n a somewhat imvo easterly eonrse.” He adds that (hi l centre of the no) th ru hraneh of the stream formerl\ struck the west coast ol Ireland and th' n went around tim west coast of Seollaml, lm( that it now passes south •d Ireland and runs straight np the Fnglish and Irish Channels. This, lie suggested. accounts for the recent rema rkahh' summers and for the heat ua\'es in the south id England while there is trust in filasemv. Mr Clapham adds that this also exphiins the ‘‘phenomenally low temperatures in the Shetland Islands during recent winters.” and the recent in” easmii ol (he Irish Channel hy sharks, lie believes that the chance in i| |( . IF'tish climate will he more marked with I In l conversion ol the open portions ot the Key West viaduct' to solid embankments or hy idle silting up pro*-