6 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



storm of i/th and i8th July, 1841, from South Italy to 

 Prague in about thirty hours. 



Closely connected with weather forecasting are arrange- 

 ments on the coast for indicating to passing vessels the 

 height of the barometer, or the character of weather likely 

 to prevail. The earliest note of this kind which we have 

 seen was in a fragment of the Carnarvon Herald (9) for 

 1 84 1 or 1842, in which an anonymous writer proposed the 

 erection of an indicator with a circular dial, 3 ft. in diameter, 

 divided somewhat like a wheel barometer, and with a bar 

 (corresponding in position to the hand of a wheel barometer, 

 but) projecting i ft. 6 in. beyond the dial. 



This was a proposal only ; five years later Col. Reid 

 had another arrangement in actual work. We orive his 

 account verbatim (10) : — 



"In 1847 I had the satisfaction of establishing signals 

 at Barbados to give warning of approaching hurricanes, and 

 of publishing at the same time suggestions as to the direc- 

 tion in which ships should be steered when quitting Carlisle 

 Bay at the setting in of a hurricane ". 



Then follows a reprint of the official notice, whence we 

 can quote only the first four paragraphs : — 



" A barometer is kept and registered at the principal 

 police station at Bridgetown, Barbados, and notice will be 

 given to the captain of the port when it falls. On the 

 captain of the port rests the responsibility of causing signals 

 to be hoisted that the barometer indicates bad weather. 



" One ball at the masthead of the signal-posts is to signify 

 that the barometer is falling, and should be carefully watched. 



" If the barometer continues to fall and the weather 

 appears threatening, a second ball will be hoisted at the 

 masthead. 



" As the indications of the weather become alarming, 

 these two balls will be gradually lowered until they are only 

 half-mast hio-h." 



Until within the last thirty or forty years, meteorologists 

 in one country knew far too little of what was being done in 

 other countries. For instance, it is almost certain that 

 neither Fitz Roy, Glaisher, nor Le Verrier ever read the 

 statement by Kreil, which we have mentioned earlier in this 



