Southern Medical and Surgical Journal - Georgia Regents University

'726 Doughty. An Essay on the Adaptation of [November,do not mark that off the coast of this section of the westernslope, or whether the same mode of circulation prevails herealso. The importance of examining this feature, will appear aswe advance.We may therefore ask, do the cold masses or currentsof water, found prevailing along the coast of California,extend as high up as the State of Oregon ? or in other words,what is the most northern point on the coast touched by thismass of water ?From the few authors which it has been our privilege to examineon this subject, it is impossible to fix definitely, either theexact place of origin, the northern or northeastern line oflimit of this cold current, or to define its specific width.Indeedwhilst they have at an early period detected the presence, and recognisedthe influence of some such controlling climatologicalagent, as evidenced in the singularly mild and uniform temperatureof the southern part of the coast ; in the variations of thesummer distribution of heat, in the advance up the coast ; andalso in the differences of the entire coast,as compared with thewest of Europe, (its want of analogy); yet beyond the mere differencesof the absolute temperatures of the waters off the Californiancoast of the winter and summer, little or nothing isknown. They speak of it in general terms, as originating somewhere"northward and westward from San Francisco," and"westward of Alaska ;" and recognise " the existence of a generalmovement from the northwest,rbut do not attempt to fixits limits, or to particularize its dimensions.To one in our present line of study, it is a matter of deep regret,that the northeastern boundary line of this summer current,has not been accurately pointed out, because whereeveralong the coast it is found to prevail,it exerts a direct influence,both upon the temperature and humidity of the landatmosphere, which it cannot exercise indirectly, or by mereproximity to it. This difference of its effects, authors generallyneed not enquire especially into, because the results at whichthey aim, are general in their nature, and tend only to theelucidation of general facts. But when, as in the present case,those local, but distinguishing features of climate, which areoften observed between places and localities, even under thesame parallel of latitude, or it may be upon the same meridian