104 



THE NATURALIST. 



I shall not fatigue tlie reader with, the methods I have adopted, and the 

 calculations I have made, for determining the mean temperature of Spitz- 

 bergen. I have made use of the observations of Phipps, Parry, and 

 Scoreshy, and those of the Northern Scientific Commission for Spitzhergen 

 and Lapland. My results being in close agreement with those of Scoresby, 

 deduced from his 0"\V!i personal observations, the figures obtained merit the 

 confidence of scientific men. Like him I have calculated the temperatures 

 for the middle portion of the island situated under the 78° of latitude. The 

 following table shews the mean temperature for each month in centigrade 

 degrees.* In order that the reader may arrive at a just idea of the rigour of 

 this climate, I have added the corresponding temperature for Paris, calcidated 

 by M. Eenore, and based on the observations of forty-five years, (1816 to 

 1860) made at the Paris Observatory. 



Mean Monthly Tempeeature in Spitzbergen under 78° K Lat. and 



Paris under 48° 58' Lat. 



Spitzbergen. 



Paris. 



Cent. 



Pahr. 



Cent. 1 



Pahr. 



- —18.2 



—1 



2.3 



36 



—17.1 



1 



3.9 



39 



—15.6 



4 



6.3 



43 



—9.9 



14 



10.0 



50 



—5.3 



22 



13.8 



57 



—0.3 



33 



17.3 



63 



2.8 



37 



18.7 



66 



1.4 



35 



18.5 



65 



—2.5 



27 



15.5 



60 



—8.5 



17 



11.2 



52 



— 14.5 



6 



6.6 



44 



—15 



5 



3.5 



38 



January.. . 

 Pebruary . 

 March . . . , 



April 



May 



June 







August 



September. 



October 



I^ovember. 

 December . 



The mean of the year is thus — 8.6 (16° Pahr.) that of Paris being 10.6 

 (51° Pahr.) the difference being 19° (35° Pahr.) the mean temperatures are 

 not sufiicient to characterise well the climate, for the same mean may corres- 

 pond with very different extremes. The following extreme temperatures have 

 been observed in Spitzbergen from April to August. In April Scoresby has 

 not seen the thermometer in the sea elevated above — 1.1 (30° Pahr.) In May 

 the highest temperature was 1.1 (34° Pahr.) The Thermometer only six 

 times reached above the freezing point, the month of May being thus still a 



* For the convenience of English readers, we have added columns giving the nearest 

 approximate temperature on Fahr. scale. — [Uds, Nat.] 



