METEOROLOGY IN RUSSIA. 

 Parallel of 39° to 40° N. 



279 



Lisbon, 9° W 



Naples, 15° E 



Lenkorau, (Caucasus,) 48^ E 

 Pekin, (China) 



Winter. 



50.0 

 47.8 

 3t». 9 



28. 8 



Summer. 



70.0 

 72. 



7.^. G 

 77.9 



Diff. 



20.0 

 2.5.1 



35.7 

 49. 1 



The difierence between the east and west is less sensible in the lower 

 latitudes than north of the 50th degree. Scarcely will the winter be found 

 colder anywhere on the 40th degree than in Pekin, and yet the difference 

 between this place and Lisbon, on the Atlantic, is only 20°, while the 

 M'inter climates of Dublin and Nicolajevsk differ by 47.0, and yet in the 

 last place the temperature is already milder, because of the proximity 

 of the Pacific. Blagovestschensk, on the up[)er Amoor, latitude 50°, 

 has a winter temperature of — 8.5, while in Helston, in Southwestern 

 England, it is 40.0 ; difference, 54.5. 



The summer temperatures are much more equable, being lowest on 

 the Pacific shore, (Ochotsk, Ajan, Petropavlovsk.) 



The ratio of the change of temperature in European Russia from west 

 to east may be adopted as follows, in degrees F. for 1° of longitude : For 

 the year: — 0.25; winter, — 0.56; summer, O.J 3, (^) that is, it increases 

 very little in summer and decreases very rapidly in winter. In this last 

 season the decrease from west to east and from south to north is the- 

 same. 



The extensive plains of Russia and Western Siberia are very favorably 

 situated for this kind of study, since the local peculiarities do not in- 

 terfere with the result as much as in other countries. In Eastern Sibe- 

 ria the conditions are different ; the country is intersected by many 

 mountain chains ; the vicinity of the Pacific modifies the climate to a 

 great extent. On the other hand, as the points of observation are very 

 ■widely scattered, it is not to be wondered that we know very little as 

 yet of the climate of this interesting country. The pole of winter cold 

 is situated, we know, at or near Jakutsk, on the Lena. As I have said 

 before, the general system of meteorological observations did not extend 

 so far northward, and it was a private individual, Mr. Neverof, to whom 

 we are indebted for the twenty-five years' observations at Jakutsk. In 

 Eastern Siberia, as in Western, the cold of winter is more intense in the 

 interior of the continent than on the shores of the Arctic; the coldest 

 known winter being at Jakutsk, latitude 62° I^. In this respect Asia 

 seems to differ very much from America, as here the coldest peninsulas 

 and islands of the Arctic Ocean are far beyond 70° K 



The cause of this difference is probably that the Arctic north of the 

 Asiatic continent is not entirely frozen, even in winter, while the nu- 



(I) Hauu, 1. c, p. 394. 



