368 Andr. Lundager 



the level ground round the pathway from the house on the land 

 to the thermometer-stand ("Die englische Hütte"), and after that the 

 eastern side of Harefjeld stood out fairly bare. Immediately before 

 the snowstorm we had peculiarly mild weather with easterly winds, 

 which was probably due to a great deal of open water at sea. 



A raven ^vas seen at the end of the month, and seals also were 

 seen on the ice as early as during this month. 



On April 5 the Snow Bunting arrived. Otherwise the month 

 was cold and dry as in 1907. The minimum temperature, — 33.7° 

 fell on the 3rd, and the maximum, — 3.5°, on the 28th. Towards 

 the end of the month it was milder than in 1907, and as was 

 afterwards seen this mildness proved to be the beginning of a 

 summer both earlier and warmer than that of the year before. 

 The mean temperature of the month was — 19.2°, somewhat lower 

 than in 1907, which was due to the severe cold in the beginning 

 of the month. A comparison between the mean temperature of 

 this and the following month showed also what was, on the whole, 

 the greatest temperature-gap which occurred between any two succes- 

 sive months. A similar gap occurred between the mean temperatures 

 for September and October. Here these numbers are compared 



for September and October 



1906 —3.3 —14.0 Dif. 10.7 



1907 — 4.0 — 14.3 Dif. 10.3 



and for the months 



The weather during the first days of May formed an immediate 

 continuation of that of April, but already on the 6th the temperature 

 rose fairly considerably and after this intimation the temperature 

 of the 7th ultimately reached the positive side : at 5 o'clock in the 

 afternoon the thermometer stood at -j- 3.0°. So high a temperature 

 was not reached in 1907 until June 1 ; also a positive temperature 

 on the whole was not reached until 17 days later in 1907 than 

 in 1908. 



This early occurrence of a higher temperature was visibly indicated 

 by the small pools due to melting snow, which formed about three 

 weeks earlier than the year before, when such pools were not found 

 until towards the end of the month. Already for a long time ago 

 the mountain-sides facing east and south have been darkening con- 

 siderably, and only the higher parts — seen from a distance — are 



