268 METEOROLOGY IN EUSSIA. 



in addition, meteorological observations at Bogoslovlsk and Zlatonste, 

 (Ural) and Lngan, (Southern Russia.) The observations were to be pub- 

 lished at the expense of the department of mines : and Kupfer was ap- 

 l)ointed director of the system. All this was accomplished between 1835 

 and 1841. The observatories, however, of Nicolajef, Sitka, and Pekin 

 were not under Kupfer's direction, nor was that of TiHis, founded in 

 1844. A yearly publication, under the title of " Annuaire magnetique et 

 meteorologique," was devoted to the meteorological observations of the 

 stations of the department of mines, as also to those of Sitka, Pekin, 

 and Tillis. 



In 1849 the Russian central physical observatory was founded. No 

 change was made in the position of the principal points, but the obser- 

 vatory entered in communication with jirivate observers, furnished them 

 with good compared instruments, and published the daily means of 

 their observations, as also those of the government stations, in a quar- 

 terly volume named "Correspondence meteorologique." The publication 

 of the hourly observ^ations of the principal stations continued under the 

 title of " Annales de I'observatoire physique central." Thus for the first 

 time a general system of meteorological observations was founded in 

 Russia. New observers volunteered to assist in the woik, and public 

 institutions took part in this movement. The department of public 

 lands furnished good instruments to its schools of agriculture, and some 

 of their observations are very valuable. Mr. Wesselovsky stimulated 

 their zeal and began at the same time to collect the meteorological 

 journals of private observers, for a general work on the climate of Russia. 

 Many journals were thus saved from oblivion, and the results of many 

 private exertions were placed in the reach of the scientific world. 



His " Climate of Russia " appeared in 1857, and, being still the most 

 extensive and complete work on this subject, I may be allowed to give 

 an account of its contents : 



The author having the intention of publishing a strictly climatological 

 work, with a view to apply his researches to statistics, and especially to 

 the inllaeuce of climate on man, unfortunately excluded all that relates 

 to the pressure of the air. Extensive tables are, however, given of the 

 mean temperature for one hundred and forty-seven stations, in which 

 number twenty-six are for Siberia and Russian America, with a clear ex- 

 Ijosition of the principal features of the distribution of the temperature, 

 and an appendix on the heating jiower of the sun's rays and the tem- 

 13erature of the soil. A table is also given of the freezing and opening 

 of one hundred and forty rivers and lakes. In this respect the compiler, 

 Mr. Wesselovsky, was favored by the particular position of the rivers of 

 Russia, and the attention always paid to this subject. Yet the collection 

 of much of the datawas due to his strenuous exertions. We are present- 

 ed with an unbroken record of the time of freezing and opening of the 

 Neva, at St. Petersburg, reaching back to 1706, that is, for one hun- 

 dred and sixty-seven years, and records of from eighty to one hundred 



