B. TERRESTRIAL PHYSICS AND METEOROLOGY. 85 



pearance of traces of the cirrus in the far west. Report of 

 the Army Signal-office for 1873, 446. 



METEOROLOGY IX RUSSIA. 



The last report of the secretary of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion contains a very complete review by Dr. Woeikof of the 

 past and present condition of meteorology in Russia. He 

 states that the first records kept in that country were made 

 about the middle of the eighteenth century, according to va- 

 rious methods and with indifferent instruments. Attention 

 was directed in the latter part of the century toward Siberia, 

 but very little result has come from the observations that 

 were then made. Between 1820 and 1825 there were about 

 thirty observers, generally private individuals, throughout 

 the entire empire. The great impulse given to the study of 

 magnetism in 1828 by the founding of the Magnetic Union 

 in Germany, and the influence of Baron Humboldt, first gave 

 a great impulse to the study of meteorology in Russia; and 

 eight completely equipped observatories were established be- 

 tween St. Petersburg on the west and Nertschihsk on the 

 east. The magnetic observatories were reorganized by Kupf- 

 fer in 1833, and were placed under the supervision of the de- 

 partment of mines. The results of the works conducted at 

 these observatories were published under the title of "Magnet 1 

 ical and Geological Annals." The Russian Central Physical 

 Observatory, at St. Petersburg, was founded in 1849, and had 

 an important influence in elevating the standard of accuracy 

 of the instruments employed throughout the kingdom. The 

 schools of agriculture, and many other public institutions, as 

 well as private individuals, volunteered to assist in the work. 

 A great mass of observations by volunteer observers was col- 

 lected and made use of by Vesselloffski in his " Climate of 

 Russia," published in 1857. In this famous work, which is 

 still the standard, the temperature tables are given for 147 

 stations, and tables of the freezing and opening of 140 rivers 

 and lakes. For St. Petersburg the records run back through 

 167 years. The most important part of Vesselloffski's work 

 relates to the winds. It was demonstrated that the climate 

 of Russia has not materially changed since the days of Herod- 

 otus. The records of the opening and closing of the Duna 

 River, at Riga, extend back to the middle of the sixteenth 



