274 METEOROLOGY IN EUSSIA. 



A general system of rains and tbiintler-storm observations was com- 

 menced, in the prosecution of wliich the society was much faivored by 

 its extensive correspondence throughout the country. Circulars ex- 

 l^laining the necessity and mode of observations were sent to the corre- 

 sponding- members, to various schools, to the presidents of the district 

 assemblies, &c. A cheap rain-gauge was also adopted, of which the 

 principle is simple and its use easy to understand. Of these there were 

 about sixty new observers in the spring of 1871, while all the necessary 

 preparations were not completed until the autumn of 1870. A year 

 later the number of observers had increased to about two hundred, and 

 this state of things continued to be very i)romising up to the time when 

 I left St. Petersburg, in December, 1872. The success of this effort 

 proves that it is not diflicult to find many persons willing to work for 

 science, even if an immediate practical result is not expected, provided 

 only that the final utility of the results is properly explained. 



To obtain this very desirable result it was necessary to i)ublish and 

 send to the observers papers on meteorological subjects, which would tend 

 to awaken and snstiiin their interest in the subject. This was done by 

 the geographical society in ]Sros. 1 and 5 of its " iswastia " which contained 

 papers of this kind, copies of which were sent to all observers, and 

 generally distributed. Being secretary of the meteorological commis- 

 sion, I was charged with the duty of drawing up the result of the first year 

 of observation, from December, 1S70, to November, 1871. The results 

 obtained were better than could have been expected from the variable 

 nature of aqueous precipitation. It was even possible from the data to 

 draw isohyetal lines, tlie first ever attempted in Russia, for the months 

 of May, July, August, and September, 1871. It was found easier to 

 draw isohyetal lines for one single month than for means of different 

 years in difierent places. As to the thunder-storms, it was less easy to 

 obtain general results from the few observations made in 1871 ; maps 

 could not be drawn from them. On the other hand, the results for the 

 direction of thunder-storms and the hours at which they occurred were 

 satisfactory. The most prevailing direction was from southwest, next 

 from south,southeast, west and northwest, while from the other direc- 

 tions their appearance was very seldom indeed. The hour of the most 

 frequent occurrence of thunder-storms was about 3 p. m. At some sta- 

 tions situated from one hundred to two hundred and fifty miles east 

 of the Ural mountains a second hour of maximum occurrence existed 

 late in the evening. As the storms move from W. to E. these latter ones 

 evidently originated in the Ural mountains, where it is known that fre- 

 quent and very violent thunder-storms occur in summer, and moving 

 eastward arrived later in the day. A similar feature could be noticed 

 in the southwestern group, Kiev, Podolia, and Volhynia. They are to 

 the east of the Karpathians, and the thunder-storms from that quarter 

 reach them in the night. 



The geographical society further decided to devote a volume of its 



