PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 5 
are large portions, even of the Provinces which have long been settled, for which our 
climatological statistics are either very meagre or are altogether wanting. The observa- 
tions of which we have most need are those of precipitation. Ontario and Manitoba are 
the only two of our Provinces in which we have any approach to adequate observations 
of rainfall. In the other Provinces we know the rainfall at a few isolated stations, but 
not at nearly enough to form any idea as to the amount at intermediate points. The 
amount of precipitation depends so much on the configuration of the land, that a very 
much larger number of observing stations is required for this than for the other elements 
which together make the climate of a district. To meet this want, the Departments of 
Agriculture of Ontario and Manitoba have got agents all over these Provinces to report 
the rain and snowfall. The reports are forwarded to the Meteorological Office at Toronto, 
and abstracts of the results are furnished monthly by that office to the Local Governments. 
By this means, an amount of information has been collected which has enabled me to 
prepare maps showing the precipitation with a fair degree of accuracy over the greater 
portion of these two Provinces. These maps show that the precipitation in some parts of 
Ontario is about double what it is in others, and in Manitoba the differences are relatively 
about the same. If we had attempteda few years ago, before we were receiving these 
additional reports, {o draw any conclusions as to the distribution of rainfall over these 
Provinces from such as we did receive, our results would have been altogether erroneous, 
and in the other Provinces we are still unable to give any information, except at a few 
isolated points. 
The same may be said to a great extent in regard to the daily range of temperature, 
which also varies a good deal from place to place, although not to the same extent as the 
rainfall. 
Now, it occurred to me that if I could interest the members of this Society in this 
subject, they might in turn interest friends living in some of the less thickly populated 
portions of their respective Provinces, and get them to volunteer as observers ; or they 
might, perhaps, by bringing the matter to the notice of the Local Governments, induce 
them to do in other Provinces, something like what is now being done in Ontario and 
Manitoba. By this means, great service would be rendered to the Science of Meteorology, 
while the information would at the same time be of immediate practical importance. I 
hope, therefore, that you will bear this want in mind, and endeavour, as opportunity may 
occur, to aid me in a matter of importance to Science, and to the advancement of the 
Dominion and of the individual Provinces. 
