ScHAW. — A Wellington Weather Prognostic. 71 



the Treasury letter previously quoted, in which the co-opera- 

 tion of the colonies interested was suggested. 



Such co-operation, in the form of a small grant from each 

 of the Australasian Colonies, would, it is believed, have such 

 weight with the Imperial Government as to induce them to 

 u.ndertake the work at once ; while the cordial feeling between 

 the Mother-country and the colonies would be strengthened. 

 The trade-routes between them would also be rendered safer 

 by the increased knowledge of magnetic variations to be 

 obtained. 



The Council cordially welcomed the proposal, and I was 

 requested to put before the members of the Wellington Philo- 

 sophical Society a precis of the communications from the 

 Royal Geographical Society, which I have endeavoured to do 

 in this paper. 



Art. X. — A Welliiigton Weather Prognostic. 



By Major-General Schaw, C.B., R.E. 



[^Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society , 18th December, 1895.] 



The weather is a subject which interests us all, and any help 

 towards guessing correctly what sort of weather we may expect 

 within the next twelve hours or so is valuable. I say " gues- 

 sing " because no weather forecasts are infallible, even when 

 aided by all that science and long observation have enabled 

 us as yet to attain to. Observations of the fluctuations of the 

 barometer, and of the winds and weather experienced at a 

 number of distant points, collected at a central office by means 

 of the telegraph, do enable a competent person to predict with 

 a great measure of certainty the character of weather to be 

 expected in the immediate future ; but the chain of causes 

 influencing weather is so complicated and so far-reaching that 

 in the existing state of our knowledge certain prediction can- 

 not be insured — only great probability ; we know how great 

 the probability is by comparing the daily forecasts made by 

 Captain Edwin with the actual weather which follows ; and I 

 think we must all acknowledge that his forecasts are very 

 generally right, although not always right. 



What I wish to bring before this meeting is a prognostic 

 which every one can observe, and which, since I first observed 

 the sign, about two years ago, has hardly ever failed to be 

 followed very shortly by a northerly blow and rain. I 

 mean a peculiar form of clouds. I call them " fish " clouds ; but 

 probably " mushroom-shaped " or "lenticular" clouds would 



