114 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Marcll 



storms, is into the history of that " river in the sea" the Gulf 

 stream, — and its reservoir, the Gulf of Mexico. Sailors have been 

 active in the daily notices of occurrences in connection with this 

 subject, but as yet little has been done by individual observers on 

 land in carrying out that unity of purpose so necessary in the 

 pursuit of meteorological science. 



Much may still be said in reference to this subject, but 

 immediate action is required. Let us, of the Dominion, no 

 longer procrastinate, a central station should be at once estab- 

 lished, to which all observations may be referred ; if Montreal, 

 then let a simultaneous system be at once adopted as to time, 

 measure, and amount. Our Telegraph lines have been always 

 ready to aid in the enterprise, the press has also offered its aid. 

 If, for this Dominion, the pressure of the atmosphere, temperature, 

 winds, etc., could be observed at distinct and fixed intervals of 

 time and space, and their connection with other atmospherical pheno- 

 mena alike be transmitted to this central point for reduction and 

 examination, we should, as a nation newly issued as it were into, 

 life, be forming one link in that important chain, which must ere 

 long encircle the whole earth. With the new appliances of 

 science and art in our sub marine telegraph, our storm signals 

 and weather-casts, we should endeavor to unravel the hidden 

 mysteries of those laws which meteorological science has not yet 

 been able to reveal from want of unity of purpose. 



If by these united efforts and by these investigations we can 

 predict the ebb and flow of our atmosphere as we can now the 

 ebb and flow of the tide, we should then be in a position to fore, 

 tell with a great amount of certainty any of those changes that 

 have so direct a bearing on our maritime and agricultural pursuits. 

 We could then at once establish at our principal seaports and 

 head-lands those beacons which might warn the sea-faring man of 

 his impending danger and prevent by timely notice that loss of 

 life and property which every year it is our misfortune to witness 

 and which we feel sure so soon as science is properly and duly 

 applied, may be averted. 



The neglect of the study of Meteorology in the Universities of 

 Great Britain is much to be regretted. Its assiduous study in 

 such countries as the United States, Austria, France, Russia, 

 Norway and the Netherlands stand out in striking contrast. In 

 the United States alone we have 800 observers, in Austria 118, 

 and in Switzerland 83. There are now 1,500 rain-gauges in 



