68 Remarks on Mr DanieWs Hypothesis 
When we bear in mind the distinction made above, all the 
arguments which have been adduced for a remarkable inten- 
sity of solar radiation in high latitudes, will be found to amount 
to very little. There are no direct experiments made with pro- 
per instruments, but there is one fact which, it is confessed, 
may enter into close comparison with those made with the black- 
wooled thermometer. Captain Scoresby states, that, in the 
month of April, while, on one side of his ship, water was freezing 
rapidly ; on the other side, which was exposed to the direct rays, 
the pitch about the bends of the vessel became fluid ; while a 
thermometer placed on the black paint- work rose to 80°, or even 
100° *. From this, however, must be deducted the influence of 
the light reflected from the surface of the snow and ice. We 
have no means of ascertaining how far these reflections did in- 
fluence the observations; but it is well known, that, at the angle 
at which the rays impinged upon the snow at that time of the 
year, almost the whole of the incident light is reflected, without 
producing any elevation in the temperature of the snow and ice. 
In the month of April, in London, the maximum effect recorded 
is 110°, which is probably nearly double the actual amount here 
indicated. That distinguished traveller Sir Charles Giesecke 
made several trials with thermometers at Godhavn, in Lat. 69°. 
In calm and clear weather, the maximum he ever obtained was 
in 
April, 
61° 
July, 
89°. 
May, 
65 
August, 
89.3 
June, 
90.5 
September, 
63.5. 
The last argument which has been brought forward, is de- 
rived from the experiments of Mr Knight, on the culture of the 
pine-apple. This able physiologist suggests, that the fruit will 
ripen better early in the spring than in the summer months. 
For, he says, this species of plant, though extremely patient of 
a high temperature, is not by any means so patient of the action 
of very continued bright light as many other plants, and much 
* Mr Daniell found, by experiment, the melting point of pitch to be about 120° ; 
but we have preferred Mr Scoresby’s own account, as there are many compositions 
used in paying ships’ sides, all confounded under the general name of Pitch, such 
as boiled coal-tar, a mixture of oil and common pitch, pitch and ochre, &c., ali 
differing from each other in consistence and fusibility. 
