ARCTOWSKI, CHANGES IX DISTRIBUTION OF TEMPERATURE 61 



The records of France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Servia, Turkey and 

 Greece have not been taken into consideration. For Kussia, Austria,, 

 Belgium, Holland and Switzerland I had only a small selection of data.. 

 For Russia, in particular, the number of utilized stations is absolutely 

 insufficient.^*' For Great Britain I have taken the district means. In. 

 reality, then, I have taken into consideration only Scandinavia and Cen- 

 tral Europe, and European Russia simply for the sake of orientation. 



It would seem that the figures of more than four hundred stations; 

 ought to give a very accurate idea of the variations of temperature which 

 occurred during 1900-1909 in Central Europe. 



This is true only to a certain extent. 



First of all there are some local complications due to orographical con- 

 ditions. To try to discuss these complications would lead me too far 

 afield and would necessitate still more data. 



I had in view simply to get a general idea of the geographical distribu- 

 tion of the annual departures of temperature and, for that purpose, I had 

 just enough data. 



The area covered by Scandinavia and Central Europe is absolutely in- 

 sufficient to give the necessary maps for a clear understanding of the 

 climatic variations which take place. Europe is but a fragment of an 

 immense continent : the old world of Asia, Africa and Europe, and the 

 variations of temperature which occur in Central Europe evidently de- 

 pend on those which occur in Asia, in the Arctic regions, on the Atlantic 

 and perhaps also of those which occur in Africa, in Equatorial Africa 

 and the Sahara in particular. Central Europe is probably the least favor- 

 able spot on the earth's surface to be taken into consideration for the 

 study of climatic variations. There, the variations are far too compli- 

 cated to be understood easily. It would have been a great advantage to 

 me, if I had had the data of all the Russian stations, those of Siberia and 

 Turkestan in particular, and also the Indian data; but then I would 

 have had to face such a number of new problems that it would have been 

 quite impossible to stop the research work in order to write down the 

 results obtained. 



The ten European departure maps which I publish now (Figs. 12-21) 

 are simply first material for further researches. These maps are most 

 suggestive for many special investigations. In order to advance, how- 

 ever, I will avoid details as much as possible and will pass at once to the 

 main question : the cause of pleionian variations. 



^' It Is my intention to study more in detail tbe variations of temperature which oc- 

 curred during the years 1900-1909 in Poland, the Russian Empire and India as soon as 

 circumstances permit. 



