NO. 17.] THE SLEDGE-EXPEDITION. 615 



January 8*''. The ensuing correction of — 11°2 would give temperatures 

 below —50° in the days from January 11*'' to 15*'\ Prof. Nansen does not 

 think it probable that such low temperatures have occurred, and the obser- 

 vations from the Fram for the same days (p. 457) give temperatures of from 

 — 45° to — 49°, whereas otherwise the Fram-temperatures are always lower 

 than those observed at the winter-hut. 



In this dilemma, I conceived that a comparison between the temperatures 

 observed at the winter-hut and those of Cape Flora might give an indication 

 of the time when the thermometer Metaxylol C had changed its correction. 

 I wrote to Dr. W. N. Shaw, F. R. S., Secretary of the Meteorological Office, 

 London, and asked him if it were possible to obtain copies of the tempera- 

 tures observed at Mr. Jackson's station at Cape Flora, at 8 a. m. and 8 p. m. 

 from January 8'^^ to February 3'''', 1896. This application was answered in 

 the most friendly way by Dr. Shaw, for which I am most grateful to him. 

 Plotting the temperature-observations from the Fram, from the winter-hut, and 

 from Cape Flora, I found that those from the Fram were lowest. The winter- 

 hut, from January 8*'^ to January 21^**, had sometimes a lower and sometimes 

 a higher temperature than Cape Flora. But from January 23'''^' to February 2"'' 

 the temperatures read off at the winter-hut were decidedly lower than those 

 from Cape Flora, while their courses ran remarkably parallel. The mean 

 difference was 11"°2C, a figure exactly equal to the correction for Metaxylol C 

 found on the 23'^'^ February by Prof. Nansen. With this correction, and the 

 corrections otherwise found, the temperatures read at the winter-hut, from 

 January 23'''* to February 2°'^ are given in the Tables of observation. ^ 



The amount of Cloud is given from the scale (clear) to 10 (overcast). 



The Latitude and Longitude of the stations where observations were made 

 have been taken from the astronomical observations discussed by Professor 

 Geelmuyden (Vol. II, No. 6, pp. HI to 136), for 



(1) all those stations where such observations have been made; 



(2) for all other stations by interpolation between the astronomical stations. 



' Prof. Nansen remarks on the 20th January, 4 p. m. : "Temperature varying, when we 

 were out, between —16° and —17° and down to —20° 5. The variations vere rapid. 

 Suppose this was according as the wind came down from the mountain or not." On 

 the 23rd, at 10 p.m.: "Temperature varying." On the 24th, at 11 p.m.: "Tempera- 

 ture varying between —6° (squalls from E.) and — 7°"8 (calm or slatches from N.)." 



