214 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE MEAN TEMPERATURE 



" ABSTRACT of the Hecla's Meteorological Journal for Txeelve Kakndar 

 Months, during which Period she was within the Parallels qf1¥ and 75" 

 of North Latitude. 



Months. 



1819, September, 

 October, 

 November, 

 December, 



1820, January, 

 February, 

 March, 

 April, 

 May, 

 June, 

 July, 

 August, 



Annual Temperature, 



REMARKS. 



" During the time that we were in Win- 

 ter Harbour, it was always found that the 

 thermometer on board stood from 2° to 

 5° higher than the one on shore, from the 

 warmth created by the fires, &c. The 

 minimum temperature for February was 

 — 60° on board, but — 55° on the ice. 

 On the ice, 14th and 15th of February, 

 the thermometer was at — 54° for seven- 

 teen hours. 



The mean annual temperature may be 

 fairly considered as 1° or 2° below zero." 



The intense cold which is thus proved to exist in the lati- 

 tude of 74f % indicates, when compared with that in 78° in the 

 Spitzbergen Seas, a very singular state of the Isothermal lines 

 at the Pole itself. The thermometric curve of 17°, which rises 

 in the meridian of Spitzbergen to the 78th degree of north 

 latitude, descends in the meridian of Melville Island to the 

 6oth degree, and unless we suppose that the climate of these 

 reo'ions is subject to no law, we are forced to conclude that 

 the Pole of the Globe is not the coldest point of the Arctic 

 hemisphere, and that there are two points of greatest cold not 

 many degrees from the Pole, and in meridians nearly at right 

 angles to that which passes through the west of Europe. 



Observations are still wanting to determine the exact posi- 

 tions of the Isothermal Poles ; but they appear to be situated 

 in about 80° of N. Lat., and in 95° of East and 100° of West 

 Long. ; the Transatlantic one being nearly 5° to the N. of 



Graham 



