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1826] SCOR Toc een ‘on 
NOTICES REGARDING ‘THE (CLIMATE OF RUSSIAy WIPH| SOME °MIS~ 
ob CELLAINEOUS' OBSERVATIONS ON METEOROLOGY.=—BY *WILLIAM 
ol AU TCHINSON,’ ESQ. feds Ani 
2H : oti) Dre 
(i) DPugslatitude of a country and its elevation above the ‘level of the’ sea,’ alk 
though they supply the necessary data for the ascertainment of its mean annual 
temperature nearly approximative to the truth, present no indications: for: the 
determination, either of the maxima and minima of temperature in ordinary 
YEAR PF of the mean temperature of any particular season. To exemplify 
this statement, it may be observed, that the lowest temperature that has beer 
remarked at Cape Nord (in north latitude 70°), according to Von Buch is 17° 5 
‘of the scale of Reaumur; whilst, in a latitude 20° more southern (that is 
50°) in Russia, at an elevation not more than 400 feet above the sea, but few 
winters pass without a temperature of at least 20° of the same seale ; and 25? 
is not of very rare occurrence. Inthe month of January 1823, 13° was ob- 
served at Constantinople, which is 39° more southerly than Cape Nord: The 
lowest temperature, in an ordinary winter in England, in the latitude of 52°, 
is about 8° Reaumur; in Russia, in the same latitude, it is, 25°,, On the other 
part, the highest temperature in England (in the latitude just mentioned),. in 
an.ordinary summer, is about 20°; in Russia, in the same latitude, it is 25° or 
26°, often of several weeks almost uninterrupted duration; and 28° has been 
frequently observed. Von Buch states that the sea is never frozen at Cape 
Nord, not even in the gulphs there. The Caspian sea is frozen to some extent 
from its- shore every winter, and the Black Sea, 25° south of Cape Nord, m 
winters of ordinary severity. Vienna is situate about 40’ south of Paris, but 
the winter is much colder than at Paris; and a lower temperature is generally 
witnessed at Paris than at London, which is nearly 3° north of Paris. 
_ It has been said that the eastern parts of the earth, in respect to our, Jongi- 
tude, are colder than western countries ; and that the cold increases as we pro- 
ceed eastward—but this is a vague and incorrect statement; for, haying passed 
the central region of Siberia, the cold diminishes again, in the same latitude, 
as the eastern ocean is approached. A similar diversity, too, with that just 
mentioned, is equally observable between England and the continent of North- 
America. In the vicinity of the sea, throughout the globe generally (meaning 
the ocean, and not small mediterannean seas, like the Caspian and Euxine), the 
cold, in winter.is much less than it is about the interior of large continents in 
the. same latitude; on the other part, the heat of the summer is also much less 
in the former than in the latter situation. The reason of the increase of cold 
in winter and of heat in summer, as we proceed eastwardly from our longitude, 
arises from our approaching the centre of a large continent. _ 
~The temperature of the earth, at the depth of a few feet beneath its surface, 
is never so low as the freezing point. Von Buch states that there is a rivulet 
in Finmark that flows constantly in a situation where the mean annual tempe- 
rature of the atmosphere is below the freezing point. This does not depend upon 
any peculiar local cireumstances. Springs of water flow throughout the winter 
in the open plains of Russia, issuing from the earth at the ordinary, level,of 
the country (that is, wholly unconnected with hills or valleys), where the tem- 
F erature is at 25° of Reaumur: and where, during two months, the temperature 
as never been higher than 6°, and the mean temperature of that period 10°. 
ae earth must, then, communicate heat to the atmosphere in the winter, in 
‘a Tegion; but it effects this to a much less extent than the ocean. The 
‘ocean, at a certain depth, is every where nearly of the same temperature; water 
transmitting heat with such facility, that the sea of the polar regions partici- 
pates rapidly of the heat of the equatorial regions, much more rapidly than 
the earth can derive heat in this way. So the sea in the polar regions is much 
warmer than the earth in the same regions in winter, and it communicates 
more readily and abundantly to the superambient atmosphere than the earth. 
In winter the earth and the sea, but the latter more especially, are warmer 
