92 M. Von Baer on the Freqtiency of 



storms of Labrador, the observations of Latrobe may be con- 

 sulted.* M. Arago founds his conclusion upon the circum- 

 stance that the observations of Captain Franklin, made at 

 Fort Franklin, in latitude ^5" 12' N. (and not in 67i°» as he 

 has indicated by mistake), and which state the occurrence of 

 thunder only once (29th May) during a vv^hole year ; but he 

 seems to have overlooked the fact, that the month of June is 

 omitted in the tables, the month in which, of all others, such 

 storms are apt to occur in the northern regions of the Oonti- 

 nent.-(- In Europe, in the same latitudes as Iceland, thunder- 

 storms are still more frequent. Julin heard thunder eighty-eight 

 times during twelve years, at Uleaborg (Lat. Q5° N.), in other 

 words, 7.3 times a-year.J At Archangel (Lat. 64° 34' N.), 

 according to the observations of M. KupfFer, there were 121 

 thunder-storms in eighteen years, or in the ratio of Q.5 a-year. 

 At Beresow (Lat. 64°) there were, in 1832, six storms. At 

 Jakutsk (Lat. 62° N.) it thundered six times in the year 1838. 

 At Nertschinsk it occurred eighteen times in six years, or at 

 the rate of 3 times a-year. These observations seem to prove, 

 that the frequency of thunder-storms is regulated by the iso- 

 thermal, or still more by the isotheral lines, rather than by 

 the degrees of latitude. 



" To these facts we now add a few other observations which 

 were made further to the north, and which prove that, in 

 Europe, thunder-storms are not so rare as they appear to be 

 in America, according to the observations of Captain Frank- 

 lin. We first extract some of the notes of M. Schrenk, a tra- 

 velling botanist, who, in the year 1837, traversed the terri- 

 tories of the Samoyedes : — ' On the 3d of June, upon the banks 

 of the river Rotschuga, Lat. Q5^° N. experienced a thunder- 

 storm : on the 8th of June, on the banks of the Sylma, same lati- 

 tude, thunder occurred along with rain, but without lightning ;j| 

 on the 17th July there was another thunder-storm, in the de- 



* Phil. Transact, vol. Ixix. and vol. Ixxi. 



t Franklin's Narrative of a Second Expedition to the Shores of the Polar 

 Sea, in the years 1825, 1826, 1827. Append. Ixix and Ixx. 

 , X ^^^ Kongl. Schwed. Acad. Neue Abhandlungen. Bd. x. (Jahrg. 1789) 

 S. 109. 



II Geoi^i's Bemerkungen einer Beise im Buss : Beiche, Bd. i. e. 427 to 435. 



