362 Dr . r lag den's Hijlory of 
to the world by Profeflor gmelin. His hrft account of them 
appeared in the preface to his Flora Sibirica *, where a few of 
the moft remarkable are adduced as proofs of the exceflive ri- 
gour of the Siberian climate ; but they were afterwards given 
at full length, with a more fatisfablory detail of circumftances, 
in M. gmelin’s journal of his travels +, publifhed by himfelf 
fome years after his return. An abftract of them was alio in- 
l'erted in the Petersburg Commentaries for the years 1756 j and 
1765 §, taken, after the profeflor’ s death, from his original 
ddpatches, in pofleflion of the Imperial Academy. All the 
accounts agree together tolerably well ; but as the journal is 
more immediately from the author, in his native language the 
German, and commonly contains moll particulars, I thought 
it right to adhere principally to that work in the following nar- 
ration of the fabls ||. 
It was at Yenileilk, lat. 58°! N. and long. 92°E. of Green- 
wich, that M. gmelin hill ohferved fuch a defcent of his ther- 
mometer as, we now know, indicated the mercury to have 
been frozen. This happened in the winter of 1 734 and 1735. 
44 Here,” fays the profeflor ^f, 44 we firfl; experienced the truth 
44 of what various travellers have related, with refpebl to the 
44 extreme cold of Siberia ; for, about the middle of December, 
44 fuch fevere weather fet in, as, w r e are certain, had never been 
44 known in our time at Peterfburg. The air feemed as if 
44 it were frozen, with the appearance of a fog, which did not 
* 
■ * P. lxxi — Ixxvii. 
i Reife du.rch Sibirjea. 
- • • 
t Nov. Comment. Petrop. tom. VI. p. 425. 
§ Ibid, tom XI. p. 320. 
i! ^ ee alfo Mein, de i’Acad. des Sciences, 1749, p. I. 
*,] Reife, TheiL I. p. 3C.5, 
i4 fufTer 
