Thunder-storms in the Polar Eegions. 93 



aerts destitute of trees, which are called Tundras in Eussia, in 

 the latitude of 68° and a trifle more ; and, lastly, on the 21st 

 July, in the latitude 69°. the same traveller witnessed much 

 lightning, but without thunder. During a journey of a week'*s 

 continuance, which was made the same year in Russian Lap- 

 land, along with M. Lehman, there was on the 23d of June, 

 near the mouth of the river Ponoi, at an inhabited port which 

 is called Tri Ostrowa, Lat. 67°, a thunder-storm which continued 

 for three hours, and which appeared to extend as far as Lat. 

 68° N. M. Reinecke, Captain of the Russian Marine, who, 

 during his examination of the coasts of the White Sea and of 

 Russian Lapland, dwelt at Kola, and upon the north coasts 

 of that part of Lapland, from the middle of March to the end 

 of summer, heard in this country, between 69° and 70% eight 

 storms in 1826; and at Utsioki, Lat. 70°, Wegelius heard 

 thunder thrice in the year 1758. 



" If it be true that there are a greater number of storms 

 in the interior of the Arctic countries than upon their shores, 

 they, nevertheless, are not altogether wanting even in the 

 midst of the Polar ice. Admiral Wrangell, in one of the pe- 

 rilous journeys which he made upon the ice of the Polar Sea, 

 to the north-east of Siberia, observed a thunder-storm upon 

 the ice, even when out of sight of land. 



** M. Ziwolka and I witnessed a storm in the centre of Nova 

 Zembla, at the western embouchure of Matotschkin-Schar 

 Strait, in Lat. 73» 10', on the 26th of July 1837. Rakhmanine 

 heard thunder three times in the southern part of Nova 

 Zembla, between the latitudes 71» and 73i% in the course of 

 the voyages he made during the last century, and which oc- 

 cupied two summers and twenty-six winters. 



." Finally, it sometimes thunders at a higher latitude than 

 75°, and even as far north as Spitzbergen. This we learn from 

 the recital of four shipwrecked Russians, who found an asylum 

 on the eastern isle of Spitzbergen, on which three of them 

 lived for six years and three months. They heard thunder 

 once, but once only, during this long period." 



