tid Meteorology. 



a furface much larger than that of a common oar, and keepi 

 the drawer immoveable ; fo that thofe who draw the pole 

 towards them, Inftcad of making the veflel to recede, caufc 

 it to advance. This machine, which may be multiplied 

 more coilvcnicntly than oars, has this vifible advantage over 

 the latter, that it oppofcs to the water a refiftance infinitely 

 fuperiOT, while the paffive re-aclion of this refiftance renders 

 the labovu' of the mariners lefs laborious and more effeftual. 



METEOROLOGY. 



The following note has been lately publifhed by Delalande 

 in one of the French Journals : 



*' M. Von Zach, dire(3:or of the obfervatory of Gotha, the 

 mod celebrated and moft ufcful aftronomer of Germany^ 

 and whom I vifitcd lafl; funmier, informs me, in one of his 

 letters, that on the 25th of December he faw the thermo- 

 meter at 21° F'ahr. below 0°. In the duchy of Wirtefn- 

 berti- it was at 34% at Auglbourg 25°, at Manheim 19°, at 

 Vienna 18°, at Amfterdam 16-, at Drefden '4° as at Paris; 

 but at Copenhagen, which is much farther north, it was 

 only at 10 degrees. Thus the cauie of this great cold did 

 not come from the north, but probably from Siberia and 

 Tartary. I am accufed of having predicted that the winter" 

 would be moderate. This is not correal. Some weak per- 

 lon had faid, in one of the Journals, that every 400 years the 

 winter was feverc, and that the laft one correfponded with 

 that period. I replied, that the period of 400 years had no' 

 foundation ; arxl that, if there Were any probable means of 

 foretelling any thing, it would be by the period of 1 8 years : 

 it has fucceeded fometimes, M. Toaldo aflerts, that in Italy 

 it fucceeds always ; and it was this which promifed us a 

 moderate winter. On this fide the Alps, and the Pyrenees, 

 focal circumftanccs, which cannot be explained, derange 

 often our calculation and the period. I gave that conjefture 

 therefore only as probability, but it has been improperly 

 confidered as a prediction." Lalande, 



INOCU- 



