84 
that of the air, so that occasionally the maximum of the air 
is below that of the snow, or the minimum above it. 
Until the temperature in the snow at about the depth I 
measured reaches freezing point, we cannot speak of any 
real snow melting. The “snow melting” is often spoken of 
by the natives as a season, irrespective of there being any 
snow to melt; but this is a more gradual thing than is 
sometimes imagined. This year from about the beginning 
of March the sun cleared a few small patches on the northern 
slopes. These were several times covered with fresh snow, 
but soon cleared again. With the first of April the real 
snow melting began, and from the first of that month until 
the snow was away I always found the snow at the freezing 
point. The size of the bare patches was rapidly increased, 
and the water from the melting snow above ran on to them 
O 
and was partly evaporated ; but with the bright sun these 
patches, for some time swampy or muddy, gradually became 
drier. By the 12th the northern slopes were getting quite 
bared, but the flat places showed little change before May ; 
and the southern slopes fairly commenced to be cleared about 
the 16th May. 
If it were not that the increase in the amount of bared 
earth is so gradual I believe that this season of the year 
would be much more trying than is the case. 
I made some further observations upon evaporation of ice 
in the shade, using the same tin (27 cm. by 22 centimetres 
X 5 cm.) as last year in Davos* hung up by wire in my 
screen. The total amount of evaporation for January was 
9T mm., but as I made some alterations in my screen for 
other instruments I was unable to continue to weigh after 
that month. 
The evaporation measured in my screen, from 9 a.m. to 8 
* Preliminary Eemarks on Observations made in Davos in the Winter 
1881-82 by A. W. Waters, Proc. Manch. Lit. & Phil. Soc., 1882, p. 162. 
