Page:Polar Exploration - Bruce - 1911.djvu/184

180 Let these Scandinavians remember what Nordenskjold, the greatest of Scandinavian explorers, afterwards wrote, when the Swedish expedition had separated from Leigh Smith, namely, that "it was he who was to render it (the Swedish expedition) so great a service, and bind its members to him for ever in the bond of gratitude and attachment"; and again, when Nordenskjold says, "May we be permitted publicly to express the deep gratitude of all of us to Mr. Leigh Smith for the costly and welcome gift, and to assure him that it will be long before the members of the Swedish Polar Expedition of 1872–73 forget the Diana's visit to Mussel Bay."

It is not creditable to Britain that this most worthy and modest Englishman has never received acknowledgment of his distinguished services in Polar exploration by the Government of his own country.

This intermediate warm layer of water, at least in the region of the Greenland Sea and to the north and east of it, appears to be due to the warm water of the Gulf Stream, which, having greater density due to its salinity, dips underneath the upper colder layer, forming a distinct intermediate stratum. With all due respect to certain scientific people who deny that the Gulf Stream reaches the shores of Britain and Spitsbergen, I consider it quibbling