PROF. MARTINS : VEGETATION OF 8P1TZBERGEN. 



105 



winter month. In June the thermometer frequently rose above zero, (32° 

 Fahr.) and Scoresby has seen it mark 5.6 (42°Fahr.) ; bat in 1810 it des- 

 cended to — 9.4 (15° Fahr.) in July I have never seen it above 5.7 (42° Fahr. 

 nor below 2.7 (27° Fahr ) ; we thus see that the teraperature is remarkably 

 uniform, not varying more than three degrees ; the same phenomenon takes 

 place in August when I have seen under 78° JST. Lat. a thermometer in the 

 sea oscillate between 1. 2 and 3°. In order to give an idea of the absence 

 of heat in Spitzbergen I may say that during the eleven years from 1807 to 

 1818, Scoresby only once saw the thermometer mark 14.4 (58° Fahr.) on the 

 29th of July 1815 ; Parry, 12.8 (55° Fahr.) on the 19th of July 1827; and 

 myself 8.2 (47° Fahr) in August 1838. The highest temperature noticed is 

 16° (61° Fahr) by the Swedish expedition on the 16th of July 1861. As to 

 the cold we have no positive information for winter, but it is probable that 

 the mercury would be frequently frozen and the thermometer would fall often 

 to between —20° (—4° Fahr) and —30° (—22" Fahr), for Scoresby has 

 observed it at —17.8 (0° Fahr) on the 18th April 1810 and even —18.9 

 ( — 2° Fahr) on the 13th of May 1814. Snow falls during every month of 

 the year. In the anchorage of Magdalena Bay in 79° 34^"^ IST. Lat. 

 the Corvette ' La Recherche' was covered with snow during the first days of 

 August 1839. In Scoresby 's journal there is not a month in which a fall of 

 snow is not mentioned. The weather is remarkably inconstant, calms and 

 ■ violent gusts of wind rapidly alternating. The sky, serene for several hours 

 becomes covered with clouds ; the fogs are almost continual, and of such a den- 

 ( sity that objects cannot be distinguished beyond a few paces, and these fogs, 

 \ humid, cold, and penetrating, generally wet like rain. Storms are unknown 

 I in these parts even in summer time ; the roll of thunder never breaks the 

 I silence of these desert seas. On the approach of Autumn the fogs increase, 

 I the rain changes to snow, and the sun rises less and less above the horizon, 

 I his light becoming gradually enfeebled. On the 23rd of August that luminary 

 1 sets for the first time in the north, the night being but a prolonged twilight ; 

 [ but from this date the length of the day rapidly diminishes until at last on 

 1 the 26th of October the sun finally descends beneath the horizon. For some 

 I time yet, the reflection of an aurora which no longer announces the rising of 

 j the sun, illumines the sky about midday, but this light becomes gradually of 

 i shorter duration, and paler, until it is completely extinguished. The moon 

 ] is then the only orb which enlightens the earth, and her wan light reflected 

 from the snows reveals the sombre sadness of these lands buried beneath the 

 snow, and of the sea congealed with ice. 

 No. 32, August 15. 



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