. METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 627 



Taking the following year in the same way wc may compare 

 Beechey Island, Disaster Bay, and Van Rensselaer. 



Disaster Bay in September 1853 - 17*00 



Van Rensselaer in October - - 0*55 



„ in November - - —23-01 



Disaster Bay in December - - — 28*08 



„ in January 1854 - - —37*38 



„ in February - - —40*24 



Van Rensselaer in March - - —38*09 



„ in April - - —8*6 



Disaster Bay in May - - - 9*34 



„ in June - - - 27*91 



„ in July - - - 38*12 



Van Rensselaer in August - - 31*35 



These results show that the pole of greatest cold (if there is 

 one) in the American Polar Sea is nearly equally distant from 

 Mercy Bay, the south-west side of Melville Island, Northumber- 

 land Sound, and Van Rensselaer, except in so far as the extreme 

 cold at any of these places may be due to local causes. 



If we consider this question in connexion with the three ocean 

 tides from Behring Straits, Baffin's Bay, and around the north 

 coast of Greenland, we shall see that the line joining places where 

 these tides meet coincides very closely indeed with the line of 

 greatest and nearly equal cold as already observed. This suggests 

 the consideration whether there is not a direct connexion between 

 the temperature of the air in the Polar regions and the meeting 

 of the ocean tides. See " Tides and Currents." 



A table of monthly mean temperatures of Polar stations is 

 added, chiefly taken from Dove's work, with the addition of the 

 results of those expeditions which have been sent out since 1854, 

 as far as they could be obtained. 



A small table of the monthly mean temperatures at stations on 

 the West Greenland coast is added for comparison, this includes 

 the mean of the temperatures for several years. It also appears 

 from tables given by Dr. Rink in his account of the meteorology 

 of West Greenland that out of 14 years observations at Upernavik 

 the mean temperature for January as well as for March was 

 lower in 1853 than in any other year, being as low as 33° F. in 

 each month. This was the winter when Sir E. Belcher was in 

 Northumberland Sound. 



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