xxxviii Anmial Report of the Council. 



1867, a second edition being called for in the following year. 

 It speedily went out of print, and it was always hoped that he 

 would find leisure to re-issue it, with an account of recent 

 researches ; but this was not to be. 



As an investigator he was remarkable for an amazing 

 power of dealing with large masses of figures, which amounted 

 almost to genius. He was an advocate of graphic methods, and 

 was accustomed to set down his facts on maps and charts. By 

 this means he was enabled to identify closed isobars as cyclonic 

 and anticyclonic areas, and he was the first to trace the course 

 of a " depression " across the Atlantic. Among his more 

 important memoirs must be mentioned a paper read before the 

 Royal Society of Edinburgh, entitled, " The Mean Pressure of 

 the Atmosphere and the Prevailing Winds over the Globe for the 

 Months and for the Year," {Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin.^ vol. 25, 

 1869), which at once established his position as a leader among 

 the meteorologists of the world, and led to his being entrusted 

 with the preparation of a report on the enormous mass of data 

 collected by H.M.S. " Challenger " during her memorable cruise 

 round the world. This was published in 1889, among the 

 reports of that expedition ; it occupies 341 pages, and contains 

 52 maps showing the mean temperature, the mean barometric 

 pressure and wind directions for each month, as well as for the 

 whole year. This work was followed by the preparation (with 

 the assistance of Dr. A. J. Herbertson) of the meteorological 

 section of Bartholomew's great " Physical Atlas." 



No account of Dr. Buchan's work would be complete with- 

 out a reference to his connection with the Ben Nevis Observatory. 

 He was one of its most enthusiastic promoters when it was 

 founded in 1883, and for the remainder of his life the work of 

 that station, on the highest point of the British Isles, unquestion- 

 ably held the first place in his scientific interests. Some of the 

 results have been published by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 

 but these were only introductory, and it was always his hope to 

 extend and complete them. 



