[85] Paijkull translates the word “to ascend violently.” It is derived from að gjósa, to gush. Max Müller (Science of Language, Longmans, 1862) derives it from the root which gives ghost, geist, gust, yeast, gas, etc.
[86] The dictionary gives only Náma or Námi, a mine or pit, for this word of general use.
[87] Lyell’s Principles of Geology, vol. i., p. 241, 11th edition. A fuller notice of this isotherm (32° F.) is given in Baring-Gould’s Introduction, pp. xxx., xxxi.
[88] The question is of vast practical importance. Upon it hinges the decision whether future Polar voyages, so necessary to the advanced study of electrical phenomena, to mention no other, shall take the route by Smith’s Sound or by Spitzbergen. For the battle of the Gulf Stream and Polar current between the Færoes and Iceland, see the Mittheilungen, xvi. (Nos. vi. and vii. of 1870), where the Gulf Stream is made to show 36°·5 F. as far as Novaya Zemlja, and to enter the Polar basin with diminution of temperature. The two distinct strata, the warm (40°-80° F.), and the heavier and more saline cold (about 35° F.) in the channel of the Færoes towards Scotland, have been described by Drs Carpenter and Wyville Thomson, the last time at the British Association, Sect. E, August 22, 1874.
[89] The author and his late friend F. F. Steinhaeuser, were never satisfied with Admiral Maury’s “Ocean River,” even though this ῥοὴ ὠκεανοῖο flowed more rapidly and was a thousand times larger than the Mississippi—larger, indeed, than “all the rivers of the globe put together.” Like the Pacific Kurosiwo or Black Stream, off Japan, it always suggested the idea of being only the main artery, the most important and noticeable part of a great whole.
[90] The most extensive are those of M. Victor Lottier (Physique, etc.), printed in the Gaimard work, and containing three parts: I. Observations of magnetism—declination, inclination, diurnal variation and intensity. II. Meteorology—barometer and thermometer; force of winds, Aurora Borealis, etc. III. Miscellaneous observations; astronomical phenomena; tides; remarks on maps and stations of the expedition. The Smithsonian Institute has published many studies of the Icelandic climate: in Scotland, also, as will presently appear, much has been done.
[91] The author has been unable to find at Trieste, the publications of the “Smithsonian Institute.”
[92] Old writers declared that the mercury habitually rose higher in Norway and Iceland than in England and France; moreover, that the air particles being more compressed and heavier, diminished the weight of objects. Thus, we are assured, 1000 lbs. of copper at Rouen = 1010 at Throndhjem.
[93] The author did not see a thunderstorm during his stay in Iceland. As regards reverberation, he remarked on the Camerones Mountain, when above the electrical discharges, and when free from the echo of earth, that the lightning was followed only by a short, sharp report, without any “rolling.”
[94] Ozone is utterly absent during the Sharki or Scirocco of Syria, and the trying effects of the east wind upon the constitution are well known to every resident. This is the more curious as it exists in the adjoining desert, when in the Nile valley and in the oases it is comparatively deficient. It has lately been proved to be everywhere more abundant in winter than in summer.