98 



sufficient number of stations in the passing of a circle, and suppose also that 

 a cyclone is passing at any mement. It is evident that by a system of guaging 

 such as has been mentioned we can tell whether the imports of air within the 

 area of the circle are greater or less than the exports out of it, and can easily 

 settle the question of an in-draught. So in like manner we can settle the ques- 

 tion as to whether there is an upward current in the heart of a cyclone ; for if, 

 on the whole, there is a carriage of air from the circumference to the centre, 

 and if at the same time the barometer at the centre continues to fall, it is 

 quite clear that air is carried away by an upward channel, for this would other- 

 wise add to the atmospheric pressure. 



Perhaps we may hope by degrees to obtain greater co-operation in observ- 

 ing, and also improve our system of reduction, but it is more doubtful if 

 meteorological observations will ever be sufficiently general to meet the necessi- 

 ties of science. Let us take the ocean, for instance, and we find a very complete 

 meteorological knowledge of certain tracts of highways, along which our traffic 

 passes, but large districts remain comparatively or wholly unexplored. And 

 unless a scientific spirit can be infused into the British navy sufficiently in- 

 tense to induce captains to cruise about in desolate ocean tracts for the pur- 

 pose of adding to our store of knowledge, there is little hope of our ever 

 obtaining a complete ocean meteorology, 



A knowledge of what passes in the upper strata of the atmosphere is 

 yet more hopeless. We cannot, I think, expect that any great or per- 

 manent advantage to meteorology will accrue from occasional observations 

 in balloons, and there is at present no ground for sux^posing that the air will 

 ever be successfully navigated. 



On these accounts it would appear unlikely that we shall ever attain 

 an extremely complete knowledge of the motions of our atmosphere, and even 

 if we could it is very unlikely that we should ever be able to reason from 

 the present to the future to the same extent as we do in Astronomy. Never- 

 theless a great many useful and important laws may be found out, and all 

 of these will be of immediate practical benefit as well as of scientific interest. 



There is therefore sufficient encouragement to persevere, and as there 

 is some ground for supposing that the meteorological distxirbances which take 

 place in the sun are connected with phenomena in the earth's atmosphere, 

 we begin to realise an indefinite widening of the field of research. 



This excellent paper was very attentively listened to, and warmly ap- 

 plauded. It gave rise to an interesting discussion, in whi* the President, 

 Dr. M'CuUough, J. E. Lee, Esq., R. Lightbody, Esq., the Eev. J. D. La 

 Touche, and John Lloyd, Esq., took part. 



Elmes Y. Steele, Esq., then r«ad the following paper ;— 



