ATMOSPHEROLOGY.— '■TEMPERATURE. 365 



feet of the ice in the month of May, in this parallel, 

 appears to be 14)^.5. Hence, as 2157.2, the number 

 of days in which the temperature was influenced by 

 the ice, is to 14)^.5, the anomaly thereby occasioned 

 in the temperature of May, so is 372, the whole 

 number of days under consideration, to 21°, the pro- 

 bable anomaly which may be supposed to exist in 

 the month of May at the Pole. Now, it is not a 

 little pleasing, that the anomaly thus found, is 

 precisely the same as that discovered by the former 

 process. 



As an objection to this conclusion, it might be 

 urged, that the place where the meteorological ob- 

 servations were made, from whence all the deduc- 

 tions are derived, was not always- at the margin of 

 the solid ice, but, on the contrary, rarely so ; conse- 

 quently, that the northern winds would pass over a 

 surface of water as well as one of ice, and that the 

 full frigorific effect of the ice would be thereby di- 

 minished. The force of this argument must be al- 

 lowed when singly considered ; but when it is like- 

 wise remarked, that southerly winds as frequently 

 passed over a small surface of drift-ice, as the north- 

 erly winds passed over water, the effects may per- 

 haps be admitted to compensate each other ; at 

 least I have thus considered it, and leave the reader 

 to determine with what degree of propriety. 



Another objection to the conclusion might be 

 suggested, on the possibility of there being a basin 

 of water at the Pole, unencumbered with ice. But 

 should this be the case, though I conceive we have no 



