278 SIR RODERICK I. MURCHISON'S ADDRESS. [May 23, 1859. 



Volumes have also been widely circulated abounding in interest- 

 ing speculative ideas, and conjectural explanations, wbicli, so far as 

 they contain a great deal of nautical information, have been ex- 

 tremely useful. But I am assured by my distinguished friend Admiral 

 FitzKoy, now at the head of the Meteorological Survey of our 

 country, that many of these works are not to be depended upon, 

 and are not approved so cordially by the critical few as they have 

 been by general readers. 



In Europe, the works of Humboldt, Herschel, and Dov^, grounded 

 on sound induction, constitute, indeed, a safe basis on which the 

 numerous class of observers may rest their meteorological facts, 

 preparing, reducing, and classifying them, for the combination of 

 master-hands. Thus, many extensive series of good observations, 

 at sea as well as on land, have been made. Much is already gar- 

 nered up ; but the winnowing of the grain from the chaff, and the 

 ultimate adaptation of the results, must be a work of time, labour, 

 and ability. 



At the observatories of Greenwich, Kew, and Oxford, photography 

 has been brought to aid in the registration of all atmospherical 

 changes. Self-registering anemometers have been used for some 

 years successfully in England, and at the Cape of Good Hope. 

 Such an instrument is on its way to Australia, and similar valuable 

 machines, showing every variation of wind, recording accurately, 

 and requiring attention only once in twenty-four hours, are already 

 erected at Halifax and Bermuda by Her Majesty's Government. 



Arrangements are made by the Board of Trade and by the 

 Admiralty — in correspondence and co-operation with the various 

 authorities around the seaboard of the Northern Atlantic — for col- 

 lecting simultaneous observations, at least once a-day, all round our 

 nearest ocean, and upon its surface, during one year — beginning this 

 summer. By such an investigation, as devised by Admiral FitzEoy, 

 a complete understanding and consequent explanation of the order, 

 sequence, causes, and consequences of atmospherical changes and 

 conditions over a large section of the world's surface may be gained 

 in less time than, perhaps, by any other mode of operation. The 

 effects of atmospherical phenomena on climate and on all waters, 

 and even on tidal action (including currents affecting the configura- 

 tion of land by abrasion or deposit) — these and the bearing of such 

 phenomena on geological or ancient conditions of the earth are only 

 appreciated by the comparatively few who have studied them. 



The immense absorption or extrication of latent heat, the un- 



