1853.] PECULIAR COINCIDENCE OF TEMPERATURE. 71 



As a table will be formed, exhibiting the progressive 

 increments of ice during the season, it will be needless 

 to state here what will then, I trust, be satisfactorily de- 

 monstrated by experiment, as well as the whole mode of 

 proceeding. 



The average temperature of this season seems to indi- 

 cate a more severe winter than last : thus, last year we 

 experienced, between the 20th and 27th of November, 



1852, 'Assistance,' max. +17; rain. 12'5; mean, 

 + 0-380; between the 20th and 27th of November, 



1853, max. -14; rain. 37'0; mean, -27'714. The 

 mean for the month, unless we have higher temperatures, 

 must be low ; that of the ' Hecla,' at Melville Island, in 

 1819, being 20'6. 



November 30. Having completed the month, we will 

 compare the results : 



Max. Min. Mean. 



'Assistance, 'month of November, 1853, +7, 37, 18'330 

 'Hecla,' 1819, +6, -47, -20-600 



Carefully turning these matters over in my mind, it 

 occurred to me that in the higher latitudes it would pro- 

 bably be found that a mean minimum temperature would 

 prevail, notwithstanding sudden and unaccountable ex- 

 tremes, below anything experienced by our predecessors. 

 I therefore referred to the records of the following ves- 

 sels, as likely to afford me some insight into this pre- 

 sumed law. I found them to coincide most wonderfully, 

 omitting for the present our own tables for 1853 until 

 the completion of the seven or nine months. 



' Hecla,' Melville Island, mean of nine months, ") 



f ~~~ \) V \J I 



October to June . 



