upon the black
hull of the _Vega_, perhaps with the help of the heat in the
interior, it had by the 14th March melted so much snow that small
icicles were formed at the gunwale. It was one of the many deceptive
prognostications of spring which were hailed with delight. However,
immediately after severe cold recommenced and continued during the
whole of the month of April, during which the temperature of the an
never rose above -4.6 deg., the mean temperature being -18.9 deg..

May began with a temperature of -20.1 deg.. On the 3rd the
thermometer showed -26.8 deg., and in the "flower-month" we had
only for a few hours mild weather with an air temperature +1.8 deg..
Even the beginning of June was very cold, on the 3rd we
had -14.3 deg., with a mean temperature for the twenty-four hours
of -9.4 deg.. Still on the 13th the thermometer at midnight showed
-8.0 deg., but the same day at noon with a gentle southerly wind a
sudden change took place, and after that date it was only
exceptionally that the thermometer in the open air sank below the
freezing-point. The melting and evaporation of snow now began, and
went on so rapidly that the land in the end of the month was almost
free of snow.

Under what circumstances this took place is shown by the following
abstract of the observations of temperature at Pitlekaj from the
13th June to the 18th July, 1879:--

Max Min Mean Max Min Mean
deg. deg. deg. deg. deg. deg.
June 13 +3.6 -8.0 -1.95 July 1 +0.8 -0.6 +0.07
14 +2.6 +0.2 +1.47 2 +1.1 -1.0 +0.40
15 +3.1 +1.7 +2.28 3 +5.0 +1.0 +2.28
16 +1.6 -0.6 +0.90 4 +3.8 +1.4 +2.68
17 +3.0 +0.2 +1.22 5 +5.2 +2.0 +3.60
18 +2.4 -0.6 +1.23 6 +8.6 +1.0 +2.28
19 +3.6 +1.4 +2.43 7 +5.0 +1.4 +2.68
20 +3.5 +1.7 +2.50 8 +8.6 +0.6 +4.82
21 +2.6 +1.5 +2.07 9 +1.8 +0.4 +0.97
22 +3.0 +1.5 +2.28 10 +1.4 +0.5 +0.90
23 +4.1 +1.8 +3.00 11 +1.4 +0.6 +1.00
24 +6.8 +0.9 +3.18 12 +9.0 +0.5 +4.73
25 +4.4 +0.4 +2.30 13 +6.5 +3.7 +5.03
26 +3.8 +0.6 +1.77 14 +5.4 +1.8 +3.68
27 +1.4 +0.7 +1.02 15 +1.6 +0.6 +1.13
28 +2.1 +0.2 +0.92 16 +3.0 +0.6 +1.52
29 +0.9 -1.0 +0.12