WCP6609

[1]

Broadstone, Wimborne

June 5th, 1904

R. H. Chandler Esq.

Dear Sir

I can only answer your questions generally. The Gulf Stream is due to great cosmical causes — the prevalence of ^South Easterly winds in the ^warm regions south of the equator, with the free circulation of the resulting currents, diverted north & south by the form of S. America. The Gulf stream is only a concentrated portion of this great system of currents through entering the Caribbean Sea &c.

There is no proof of there ever having been a wide sea separating N. & S. America, only straits of moderate width & depth, hence [2] they would only diminish, not destroy, the great currents carrying warm water across the Atlantic towards Europe.

The only ^clear indications of the separation of N. & S. America that I know of are during the late Pliocene, Miocene & perhaps late Eocene periods, with all limited both in extent & time. The curious affinity of the Eocene Mammalia of S. Temp. America & Europe indicate that at some earlier period there was complete land communications through N. America & N. Europe across [3] the North & sub-arctic Atlantic. I have discussed this in my Geol. Dist. of Animals Vol. I. Chap. VII.

Taking then, as proved, the permanence of the Oceanic & Continental Areas, the existence of the Gulf Stream, or of currents of the same nature, during the Cretaceous Period is, to me, certain; & was therefore assumed in the absence of any evidence to the contrary.

Yours very truly | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]