TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 39 



In a paper read before this Association thirteen years ago, I ventured to point 

 out that meteorology had been studied in far too circumscribed a sphere, and that 

 nations should combine to study the atmospheric laws. Acting on this principle, a 

 very important step has recently been taken by the American minister, Mr. Abbott 

 Lawrence, and Viscount Palmerston, towards putting the consuls of the American 

 and British nations throughout the globe in communication with each other for the 

 furtherance of meteorological investigations. It is proposed that the consuls shall 

 aid their respective navies, both public and commercial, in collecting meteorological 

 facts. Instructions to this eflfect have been sent by Lord Palmerston to about 200 

 British consuls ; and in these instructions to the consuls it is stated, — " You will 

 transmit to me half-yearly an abstract of the information you may have obtained, 

 with such remarks as may suggest themselves to you. If you can add diagrams, to 

 show the tracts of any remarkable storms, they will greatly add to the value of the 

 reports ; and as it is of importance to circulate as widely as possible information as 

 to storm tracks, you should encourage the publication of such information in news- 

 papers and periodical works." 



If these instructions be properly carried out, they will prove of high value to me- 

 teorological science. The progress hereafter to be made in the study of the atmo- 

 spheric laws, will in a great degree depend upon periodical publications, widely cir- 

 culating information from as many points on the surface of the globe as it is possible 

 to obtain it. It has been mainly through the instrumentality of the Bengal Asiatic 

 Society's Journal giving wide publicity to Mr. Piddington's labours, that we are in- 

 debted for our present knowledge of the cyclones of the Indian seas. 



It had been supposed that hurricanes were unknown at the Cape Verde Islands, 

 yet a very severe one occurred there on the 3rd of last September. By the consular 

 reports, forwarded to me by Lord Palmerston, together with reports from some ves- 

 sels which encountered it, I find that the storm alluded to came from the eastward, 

 and passed over the Cape Verde Islands, on a westerly course, as a whirlwind storm. 

 The Cape Verde Islands are in lat. about 16° and 17° north. It was afterwards en- 

 countered in lat. 28°, long. 32°, which shows that it took from the Cape Verde a 

 north-west direction. If it continued its progress it must have passed to the west- 

 ward of the Azores. 



In such an inquiry, negative proof, if I may here apply the term, is of great value ; 

 and it has been satisfactorily proved from reports called for by the Foreign Office, 

 that this storm did not pass between the groups of islands on the eastern side of the 

 Atlantic. But the reports from Mr. Carew Hunt, consul at the Azores, lead to the 

 belief that it did pass on the 12th of September to the westward of his position. I 

 have alluded to this Cape Verde Islands hurricane, in order to show the great im- 

 portance of having observations over extensive spaces of the globe, in studying the 

 atmospheric laws. 



It is generally known that for some time back, the direction of the wind has been 

 reported to the Electric Telegraph Company, from all the points in Great Britain 

 with which their wires communicate ; but the atmospheric pressure was not given. 

 Within these few days, however, this very valuable addition has been made by the 

 Electric Telegraph Company. 



Should the attempt now making to lay down electric telegraph wires across the 

 Straits of Dover be successful, we shall be able to obtain in this country simulta- 

 neous reports on the veering of the wind, in combination with the alterations of at- 

 mospheric pressure over all parts of Europe. We should then be able to track the 

 storms of the Mediterranean Sea, over Europe to the Baltic ; and I have great 

 pleasure in being able here to state, that there is reason to hope that the French in 

 Algeria have engaged in this inquiry, with a view of tracing the Mediterranean 

 storms to their source in Africa. 



Abstract of Meteorological Observations made at Futtegurh, for the Year 

 1850, North- West Provinces, Bengal. By John C. Pyle. Transmitted 

 by Dr, Buist, and communicated by Lt.-Colonel Sykes, F.B.S. 



Description, position, &c. of the instruments employed : — 



Barometer. — Frame wholly of metal ; iron cistern for holding the mercury, with 



