• Meteorological Observations. 139* 



the other attending to the copy, and then exchanghig parts, a process always 

 advisable wherever great masses of figures are required to be correctly 

 copied. 



.6. A copy so verified, or the original, (the latter being preferred) should be 

 transmitted regularly) if possible monthly from places within the limits of the 

 colony) to the Secretary of the South African Literary and Philosophical 

 Society, at Cape Town, which institution on its part will take care that such 

 documents shall not merely be treasured as a dead letter in its archives, but 

 shall be rendered available towards the improvement of Meteorological know- 

 ledge, to the full extent of their actual scientific value. 



7. The register of every instrument should be kept in parts of its own 

 scale, as read off, no reduction of Foreign measures or degrees to British be- 

 ing made — but it should of course be stated wliat scale is used in each instru- 

 ment. 



II. Of the Times of Observation and Registry. 



Meteorological observations should be made and registered daily, at stated 

 and regular hours. In fixing on these, some sacrifice of system must of ne- 

 cessity be made to the convenience and habits of the observer. The best 

 hours in a scientific point of view would be those of Sun-rise, Noon, Sun-set, 

 and Midnight, and these are the hours for which the registers are kept at the 

 Royal Observatory. But these are not the hours adapted to general habits, 

 and since the midnight observation is likely to be pretty generally neglected 

 elsewhere than in an Astronomical Observatory, the following hours, for a 

 division of the day into three parts, are proposed for what may be deemed the 

 Morning, Afternoon, and Evening observations, viz. 



Morning, . . . 8 a. M. 

 Afternoon, . . . 2 p. ai. 

 Evening, . . . 8 p. m. 



If, however, the habits or engagements of any one should not allow him to 

 conform to these hours, rather than not observe he may select his own, spe- 

 cifying only what they are at the head of every page of his register, and ad- 

 hering steadily to them in practice, only observing to make the extreme ob- 

 servations of each day equidistant from the middle one. 



At the same time it will be borne in mind, that in what concerns the great 

 Meteorological questions on which the most interesting features of the sub- 

 ject depend, the night is quite as important as the day, and has hitherto been 

 far too much neglected. To any one, therefore, who may feel disposed to en- 

 ter more zealously into the subject, and will not consider some personal in- 

 convenience ill undergone for the sake of affording data of a peculiarly valu- 

 able description, this Committee would most earnestly recommend the adop- 

 tion, in preference to all others, of the quaternary division of the 24 hours, 

 as followetl at the Royal Observatory above alluded to. And they leave it 

 to the consideration of the Council, whether the keeping and transmission of 

 registers on this principle might not advantageously be distinguished by some 

 honorary reward, as that of a Medal for instance, should the funds of the In- 

 stitution admit of it 



With a view, however, to the better determining the laws of the diurnal 

 changes taking place in the atmosphere, and to the obtaining a knowledge of 



