182 I. P. Kocn. 
which it has been possible to undertake with the light sea wind, 
teach us nothing of the conditions of temperature above the sea 
wind, because with the primitive means at our disposal, it was not 
possible to “throw” the kites into the nearest higher stratum of the 
air. On the other hand, there are within the period June 9th— 
September 9th eight balloon-ascensions, of which the seven show a 
considerable rise in temperature at the transition from sea wind to 
land wind (SW) or calm. 
The altitude in which this sudden change of temperature occurs 
varies greatly; in the course of the seven kite-ascensions it lay in 
two cases between 5 m and 200 m, in four between 200 m and 500 m, 
and in one between 500 m and 1000 m. It is however very probable, 
that the sudden change in temperature at the transition from sea 
wind to land wind or calm often lies below 200m. I base this 
opinion on the fact that the column “Calm or nearly Calm” in the 
above table includes a number of cases, where there was a very 
light sea wind, which in the journal was recorded as calm’). The 
altitude of this very light sea wind must be supposed to have been 
very slight, often undoubtedly under 200 m. 
It will now appear why the summer-maximum showed in 
Fig. 14 must be supposed to be too small. As far as the kite- 
ascensions are concerned it either refers to a land wind or an ex- 
ceptionally strong sea wind, in which latter case the great inversion 
— in so far as it has existed — has been exceptionally high. As 
far as July is concerned — the month for which the frequency of 
the sea wind is 53 /o, and for which the temperature of the sea wind 
is on an average three degrees lower than that of the land wind — 
there are, in the case of both years, only four balloon-ascensions 
with an easterly wind of in all seventeen kite- and balloon-ascensions 
during the same month. It is therefore a reasonable supposition, 
that the special circumstances connected with the effects of the sea 
wind on the inversion and so also the co-efficient of refraction, has 
not been fully expressed in the maximum shown in Fig. 14. 
In the reflections here set forth lies the chief cause of the maxi- 
mum, which the co-efficients of refraction, corresponding to the lines 
of vision at the cairns IX and X, show during the period July 9th 
to August 12th. This maximum must thus be looked upon 
as a phenomenon connected with the coast, and not as 
something which one might generally expect to find during the 
summer in high-arctic regions. 
The corresponding maximum to Cairn У, the “Skerry” and 
1) See: “Meteorol. Terminbeob.”, Medd. om Grønland XLII, p. 326. 
