Page:McClure's Magazine volume 10.djvu/117

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part of its heat to the Polar sea. The consequence would be that it would be warmer than it now is, and we would get a milder climate in that part of the globe than we have at present.

What, on the other hand, would be the result if we imagine that the outflow of ice and the influx of warm water were considerably enlarged? What would happen if, for instance, the Bering Strait was made very much broader and deeper than it is at present, so that the warm Japanese current, the Kurosiwo, could run into the Polar basin ? It is evident that the bulk of warm water would be more considerable and warmer than it is at present, and at the same time the layer of cold water on top would be very much reduced. The result would be that the formation of ice by freezing would be still more retarded, and then the floes would be carried out of the Polar sea more rapidly and would get even less time to grow thick than is now the case. Could we, however, imagine that the Polar sea at the same time got no supply of fresh water from the Siberian and American rivers, through the water-shed being so altered that these rivers would flow into some other ocean, then the