METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 621 



The appendix to his " Second Voyage " contains a complete 

 register of temperatures, direction and force of the wind, and the 

 state of the weather at various hours, and the daily and monthly 

 means, also the register of the barometer, and an abstract of the 

 meteorological observations. 



The prevailing winds through the first winter, 1829-30, were 

 N.W and next N.E. South-easterly winds were light, and the 

 total average of the wind was much greatest from the northward. 

 This was also true of the summer months. With regard to winds 

 and currents Sir John Ross remarks : — " This, together with the 

 " numerous and large rivers which discharge themselves into the 

 " Gulf of Boothia, must account for the strong current which Sir 

 " E. Parry found running to the eastward in Hecla and Fury 

 " Strait. During the second winter the wind prevailed from the 

 " north-west ; but north-east winds were not so prevalent as 

 " during the former winter, south-\7est winds being the next ; 

 " this may account for the winter being so severe, as there can 

 " be no doubt that the wind came from a colder quarter. These 

 " winds brought vast quantities of ice into the gulf." 



In the account of his first voyage to discover a North-west Passage 

 Parry remarks : — 



" The wind and the thermometer rose together on more than 

 " one occasion. On Dec. 31 the wind freshened from the north- 

 " east, and the thermometer rose from —28°, the wind changed to 

 " the S.S.E., and the thermometer still continued to rise and 

 " reached 5° F. Other instances also appear in the register where 

 " a change of wind from north to north-east or east was accom- 

 " panied by a great increase of temperature. The north-east, east, 

 " and south-east are the warmest winds." The prevailing winds 

 appear to have been from the north. 



In Sir John Franklin's second expedition to the Polar regions 

 in 1825-27, when he went overland to the Mackenzie River, 

 in addition to the usual meteorological record, observations 

 were made on the amount of solar radiation by means of a black- 

 ened thermometer at Port Franklin, latitude 62° 12' N., longitude 

 125° 12' W. ; and at Carlton House in the following year, latitude 

 52° 51'- N., longitude 106° 13' W. 



5. Meteokological Observations by Sir Edward Belcher. 

 (The Last of the Arctic Voyages, &c.) 



From Sir Edward Belcher's Record of Temperatures it seems 

 very clear that the winters of 1852-53 and 1853-54 were very 

 severe. 



On January 6, 1853, the temperature was —51*5° and continued 

 to fall; on the 12th, at 9 p.m., the temperature was —62-5°, and 

 the indices of four thermometers the next morning at 8 a.m. read 

 - 62-0°, — 61-6°, - 66-0°, - 63-2°; on the 14th the temperature 

 had not risen above — 46° for four days, and the mean for the last 

 three days had been — 55*61°. 



From the 5th to the 15th the mean temperature was — 48*88° F. 

 The temperature did not rise above — 46° for 6J days, or above 



