ATMOSPHEROLOGY. — CLIMATE. 325 



March, that the stones split in twain, and the sea 

 reeks like an oven *." 



When the sun returns to enlighten the benight- 

 ed north, the arctic countries become more tolerable. 

 The months of May, June and August, are even 

 occasionally pleasant ; but with July, and partially 

 with June and August, the densest fogs prevail. 

 On these occasions, though the temperature of the 

 air be mild, the feelings are much more annoyed, 

 and the spirits much more depressed by this tedious 

 and painful obscurity, than by the enduring of a 

 much colder atmosphere. 



The temperature of the atmosphere, in the polar 

 seas, is, in the summer months, very uniform. In 

 the month of July, when fogs occur, the thermo- 

 meter is generally near the freezing point, and is 

 found not to be above three or four degrees higher at 

 mid-day than it is at mid-night, and sometimes, 

 •«with steady winds and constant fog, the tempera- 

 ture does not vary above a degree or two for several 

 days together. But in the spring and v/inter sea- 

 sons, the atmospheric temperature is subject to very 

 great and rapid alterations ; and it is worthy of ob- 

 servation, that the most remarkable of those chan- 

 ges are frequently simultaneous with the greatest 

 changes of pressure. 



* History of Greenland, vol. i. p. 43. 



