_[j°9 1 
Kirenginfhi, where its fharpnefs was fo great, that 
Profefior Gmelin with difficulty ffiiid at the door of 
his houfe, between three and four minutes. 
Feb. io, 1738,. at 8 in the morning, the mercury 
Food at 240 degrees in De L’lfle ; which is 72 below 
o in Fahrenheit. At the fame place in 1736, Dec. 
11, at 3 p, in. 25-4 in De L’lfle, almoft 90 below o 
in Fahrenheit. Dec. 20, at 4 o’ clock, p. ?n. 263 in 
De L’lfle = 90 ~~ below o in Fahrenheit. 
Jan. 9, 1735, 12 at noon, 2 77— 1 13 
Jan. 6, 6 in the morning, 280= 120 below o in 
Fahrenheit, and 152 below his freezing point. 
Such an excefs of cold could fcarcely have been 
fuppofed to exift, had not thefe experiments demon- 
ftrated the reality of it ; and Profefior Gmelin aflures 
us, they were made with all poffible exadlnefs, and 
agree with many others made in different parts of 
Sibiria by his direction. 
It was not apprehended, that a greater degree of 
cold exifled any-where, than that artificial one pro- 
duced by Boerhaave, by means of ice and concen- 
trated fpirit of nitre, which funk the mercury 40 
degrees below o in Fahrenheit’s thermometer; and 
this was fuppofed to be the point, beyond which no 
animal could bear it : and Mr. Gmelin’s relation is 
the more extraordinary, as the French academicians 
under the polar circle mention the greatefl degree of 
cold, obferved by them, to be by Reaumur’s thermo- 
meter 37 degrees, which nearly correlponds with 70- 
degrees below the o in Fahrenheit’s. 
XVII, 
