^o Repori' S.A.A. AnvANCEMEXi or Science. 



-omitted. Iml the olijt-ct that has lieen steadily kept in \ iew throughout 

 has been to demonstrate that the stud\ ot" the chmatology of the 

 Cape Colony has been of no " mushroom " growth, but has undergone 

 a .slow {very slow, indeed) process of evolution. 



It seems to me to be a standing reproach that in order to obtain 

 anything approaching a satisfactory series of hourly observations for 

 any place in South Africa we are compelled to depend, firstly, on 

 the private enterprise of the much-abused De Beers Company and 

 one of its employes ; and, secondly, on the Royal Observatory, an 

 institution maintained solely and entirely at the cost of the Imperial 

 authorities, as represented by the Lords Commissioners of the 

 Admiralty. Has the time not yet arrived when this Colon\ ought 

 to be provided with at least one Fir.st Order Station of its own. which 

 ■could be used at the same time as a Central Office for the collection 

 and dissemination of meteorological data, and might, in addition, be 

 equipped with self-recording in.strtmnents for the continuous study 

 of Terrestrial Magnetism and Atmospheric Electricity, .so ably 

 initiated by Professor Morrison and Dr. Beattie? That there is 

 nothing new or revolutionary in this idea may be gathered from the 

 following quotation from the Presidential Address of Sir David Gill 

 to the South African Philosophical Society on July 29th. 1881 : — 

 " I hope to see the time when twc) or three standard observing 

 stations, with .self-recording instruments, will be created and main- 

 tained, at least for several years, for the purpose oi ascertaining the 

 laws of the diurnal change of temperature, moisture, and pressure 

 in various parts of the Colony." Again, the late Mr. J. G. Gamble, 

 in his address to the same Society in the following year, states : — 



"We want self-registering instruments Profes.sor Wild 



says that two years' observations of self-registering instruments at 

 Berne Observatory had given more information than the previous 

 twenty years' ordinary observations. It is as much as we can do 

 to get two observations a day from unpaid observers, but we want 

 readings much more frequently than that." Then, after announcing 

 the establishment of a self-recording anemometer at the Royal 

 Observatory, and the proposed establishment of two others at East 

 London and Port Elizabeth, he adds : " But we want besides some 

 self-recording barometers and thermometers, and should have at least 

 six sets distributed throughout South Africa." More than twenty 

 years have passed since these words were spoken, and Ave are still 

 in the same condition as we were then. 



The need for some such Station, or at least for .some eprmanent 

 ■office, has been very forcibly brought to my attention by the fact 

 that during my six years' secretaryship the office of the Meteoro- 

 logical Commission has been situated in no less than four different 

 places ; the consequent result as regards the arrangement or rather 

 disarrangement, of about thirty years' records can be left to your 

 imagination, and as far as my present information goes, the time 

 is not far distant when this office will be moved once more ! As it 

 frequentlx happens that past records are required as evidence in 



