METEOROLOGY IN RUSSIA. 



By Dr. Wceikof, 

 Of the Bussian Imperial Geograpliical Society. 



The first meteorological observations in Russia were made about the 

 middle of the eighteenth century. The points of observation were few, 

 scattered irregularly over the country, with very different methods and 

 instruments. About the end of the last century attention was directed 

 to that distant but highly Interesting land, Siberia. The natural his- 

 tory of the country having been studied by Lepechin, Pallas, Gmelin, and 

 others, the necessity of investigating its climate was also felt. Some 

 efforts were made in this direction ; thermometers were distributed, but 

 the result w^as not encouraging, and we know next to nothing relative to 

 these first Siberian observations. Even at the beginning of the nine- 

 teenth century the necessity of the study of meteorology was not gener- 

 ally recognized in Eussia, and only as late as about 1820 were the num- 

 ber of points of observation increased. Between the years 1820 and 

 1835 meteorological observations were made in about thirty places, gen- 

 erally by private individuals, without any unity of plan, and often with 

 imperfect instruments. Probably even many of the journals kept at 

 that time were lost to science, for every observer worked by himself, 

 and had generally no communication with each other and the leading 

 savans of the time. 



The great impulse given to the study of magnetism in 1828 had an 

 influence on meteorology. In that year the " magnetische verein" was 

 founded in Germany, and its president. Baron Humboldt, made great 

 efforts to induce the Eussian government to establish magnetical obser- 

 vations in its dominions. The Academy of Sciences warmly seconded 

 this effort, and in consequence magnetical observatories were estab- 

 lished at St. Petersburg, Kasan, Nicolajef, Sitka, and Pekin, and some- 

 time afterward at Catherineuburg, (Ural,) Barnaul, (West Siberia,) and 

 the mines of Kertschinsk, (East Siberia.) 



In 1833 Kupfer presented a plan of reorganization of the mag- 

 netical observatories, so as to include meteorology. He was supported 

 by the minister of finance and the chief of the engineers of mines 

 K. W. Tchefkine. This plan was approved by the Emperor Nicholas 

 and, like the system of magnetical observations, was placed under super 

 vision of the department of mines, with its center at St. Petersburg, 

 Magnetical and hourly observations were to be made at the following 

 places: St. Petersburg, Barnaul, Catherineuburg, and Nertschinsk, and, 



