B. TERRESTRIAL PHYSICS AND METEOROLOGY. 79 



that will, it may be hoped, eventually become a telegraphic 

 storm-warning system. A letter of February 4 from Dr. B. 

 A. Gould, a distinguished American astronomer, and now the 

 director of the observatory at Cordova, gives the following 

 information on this point : 



"Here the meteorology and climatology of the vast tract 

 of country from the tropics to Cape Horn, east of the Andes, 

 has remained until this time almost unknown, notwithstand- 

 ing the singular and very exceptional character of the atmos- 

 pheric relations. Although reluctant to spare any time from 

 the astronomical investigations which brought me here, I have 

 been so much impressed with the absolute scientific necessity 

 of a series of meteorological observations in the vast territory 

 of the Argentine Republic that I have procured the passage 

 of a law establishing a National Meteorological. Bureau, and 

 have assumed the charge of it until it can be properly organ- 

 ized and. confided to other hands. Within a few months I 

 hope to have something like fifteen to twenty observers at 

 work, making three observations daily ; and in another year I 

 am not without hopes of having double that number engaged 

 in the work, from the slopes of the Andes and the borders of 

 Bolivia down to the confines of Patagonia. The government 

 has assigned |6500 this year for the purchase and transporta- 

 tion of instruments. . . . The weather causes us (astronomers) 

 much trouble. This is the ninth consecutive rainy or over- 

 clouded day^not sun, moon, nor star having been visible in 

 all that time. And yet, before selecting Cordova as the site 

 of the observatory, I had been assured that I might count 

 upon 320 clear nights in the year ! But 120 would have been 

 nearer the mark." 



DOVE ON CLIMATE. 



The reliability of the commonly accepted views of Dove as 

 to the possibility of obtaining from a short series of observa- 

 tions the true average climatic conditions, by applying to the 

 given series corrections for non-periodic changes deduced for 

 some neighboring station, has recently been investigated by 

 a study of the observations made at Chiswick and in London 

 since 1826, the material for which has only lately been pub- 

 lished. As this is the first attempt to firmly establish the 

 truth of the views Dove has long maintained, it is interest- 



