Climate of Vancouver Island

WM. PENGELLY
1881 Nature  
NATURE the freezing-point; and if we take the area of the water as about equal to that of the land, we shall have heat. enough to raise the whole Arctic ocean to a depth of full 180 feet more than 20° F., or to a mean temperature of 52° F., and as this would imply a still higher surface temperature it is considerably more than I require. Unless therefore Prof. Haughton can prove that the amount of ice now forming annually in the Polar regions is very much mwe than an average of fixe feet thick
more » ... ver the whole area, his own figures demonstrate my case for me, since they prove that the rearrangement of land and sea which I have suggested would produce a permanent mild climate within the Arctic circle and proportionally raise the mean temperature of all north-temperate lands. Briefly to summarise my present argument :-Prof. Haughton's fundamental error consists in assuming that the true way of estimating the amount of heat required in order to raise the temperature of the Polar area a certain number of degrees is,first, to suppose an accumulation of ice indefinitely greater than actually exists, and then to demand heat enough to melt this accumulation annually. The utmost possible accumulations of ice in the Arctic area, during an indefinite number of years, and under the most adverse physzcal conditions imaginable, are to be all melted in one year; and the heat required to do this is said to be the " accurate measure" of that required to raise the temperature of the same area about 2oo, at a time when there were no such great accumulations of ice and when all the physical conditions adverse to its accumulation and favourable to its dispersal were immensely more powerful than at present ! When this fundamental error is corrected, it will be seen that Prof, Haughton's calculations are not only quite compatible with my views, but actually lend them a strong support. ALFRED R. WALLACE
doi:10.1038/023267b0 fatcat:bqoboedjubanbiq2kyrxrhgohq