292 On the Glaciers and Climate of Iceland. 



gating the severities of the north, is manifest even in this 

 distant region. 



In inquiries respecting the Icelandic climate, the compari- 

 son of the mean temperatures of the four seasons, in the 

 north and south of the island, is not to be neglected. It 

 would be quite possible that the mean temperature for the 

 year in the north might be considerably reduced by the seve- 

 rity of the winter, without the occurrence of any great differ- 

 ence between the temperatures of the north and south at 

 the remaining seasons. Experience, however, shews that, 

 with reference to Reykjavik and Akureyre, the temperature 

 of the latter place is, at every season of the year, consider- 

 ably lower than that of the former. The difference of tem- 

 perature, no doubt, is greatest in winter, amounting, at that 

 time, to six degrees centrigade, while in spring and autumn 

 it is four degrees, and in summer only a little above two. 



Thus, after a long winter, there follows, still more strik- 

 ingly in the noi'th of the island than in the south, a short 

 summer, without the intervention of any real spring ; and, 

 again, after a scarcely perceptible autumn, a winter of eight 

 months' duration suddenly sets in. 



In certain years, when the drift-ice from Spitzbergen con- 

 tinues to block up the north and north-east coasts till July, 

 or, as has sometimes occurred, even till August, one winter 

 passes, with scarcely any interval, into another ; so that 

 famine and bad times are the natural consequence to the in- 

 habitants. 



The degree in which the configui*ation of the hills, and 

 the direction of the winds, contribute to the difference be- 

 tween the climates of the north and south, has not, as yet, 

 been satisfactorily determined. Meteorological observations, 

 conducted simultaneously on the north and south of the 

 mountains, would pei'haps soon decide this question. In the 

 western country, we had constantly cold, wet, disagreeable 

 weather, when the wind was from the east or south-east ; 

 and this is certainly to be ascribed to the position of the icy 

 mountains. West and north-west winds, on the other hand, 

 were accompanied by more genial weather. The prevailing 

 winds, according to Thorstensen, are from the north-east. 



