The semidiurnal variation of galactic cosmic ray intensity is investigated using data from mainly high counting rate neutron and meson monitors during 1964–1968. It is shown that in order to explain the observed semidiurnal variation it is necessary that an anisotropy of cosmic ray intensity be present in interplanetary space. The energy spectrum and the asymptotic latitude dependence of the anisotropy are then determined. The energy spectrum has a positive exponent close to + 1 for the power law in energy. The strength of the anisotropy decreases more rapidly than cosλ with increasing asymptotic latitude λ, both cos2λ and cos3λ being acceptable. The distribution of cosmic ray intensity in the range of heliolatitudes ± 7.25° at the orbit of the earth, obtained using data from the Ottawa neutron monitor, does not support the explanation of the semidiurnal variation based on the models of Subramanian and Sarabhai or Lietti and Quenby.