8 TTINDS OF THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE. 



factory means for studying the winds of the North Atlantic, from the equator to 

 the parallel of 55° of latitude. Over the remaining four-fifths of the Northern 

 Hemisphere, the data are more deficient, though not entirely wanting. It was 

 apprehended that they must be very meagre in the high northern latitudes, 

 dependent as we are for them entirely upon the reports of the different arctic 

 expeditions, and considering the difficulty of taking meteorological observations 

 through the entire year in those frozen and inhospitable regions. Yet they were 

 found to be more satisfactory than was anticipated; and I have been able to em- 

 body in this memoir the results of 38* years' observations, taken at twenty diflferent 

 stations north of lat. 60°, nine of which are within the Polar Circle. Indeed, so far 

 as information is to be obtained from regular and published series of observations, 

 Plate I. shows that we are better informed in regard to the winds about the north 

 pole than on the Pacific Ocean; although the latter is constantly traversed by 

 ships, and the former never, unless for the purpose of scientific research.^ 



There is a considerable gap in the interior of British America, which would 

 have been still greater, but for the politeness of several of the officers of the 

 Hudson's Bay Company, who kindly contributed collections of observations taken 

 at their respective stations. 



In Asia, the stations are few in number, compared with the vast extent of 

 territory; and 3'et they are as numerous, perhaps, as could reasonably be expected. 

 In the southwestern part, there are twelve places from which I have obtained 

 observations, chiefly through the kindness of American missionaries residing there. 

 Kupffer's voluminous collections,^ published by the Russian government, also 

 afforded me a number in Siberia and the Ural Mountains. Throughout the wide 

 area of the Chinese empire, embracing the whole of Central and Southeastern 

 Asia, we have records only from Pekin," nor is there, so far as I know, a prospect 

 of obtaining others. Some observations that I was encouraged to expect from the 

 southern part of China Proper, have not yet come to hand. In Southern Asia, the 



' I am happy to learn that the National Observatory, under the direction of Lieut. Maury — to whose 

 labors we are so much indebted for the publication of the Charts of the Winds of the North Atlantic — has 

 prepared, and will shortly publish, simihir charts of the North Pacific. When this is done, and when 

 returns shall have been received of the observations taken under the direction of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion, in Oregon, California, and Now Mexico, we shall be more fully prepared for the study of the winds 

 of the Northern Hemisphere. 



^ I exceedingly regret my inability to avail myself, to the extent I desired, of the fund of information 

 contained in these important volumes. The original hourly or bi-hourly records of the directions of the 

 wind are published in full, and without abstracts or condensation, so that the labor of reducing them is 

 very groat; and as I had no access to the volumes, except by resorting to distant libraries for the purpose, 

 want of time compelled me to content myself with imperfect abstracts of one or two years only at each 

 station, counting in some cases only every fourth observation. The reduction of the entire series, by some 

 one more favorably situated, would bo a valuable service toward developing the meteorology of those 

 comparatively unknown regions. 



" Two separate series of observations were obtained from this station; one taken by the French mis- 

 sionaries, if I mistake not, in the last century, and the other quite recently, under the direction of the 

 Russian Government. 



