president's address — SECTION E. 207 



iDy Professor Gregory in the address already mentioned and elsewhere. 

 Accurate long-period weather forecasting is a problem of vital im- 

 portance to Australian graziers, farmers, and others ; and its solution 

 would amply justify an expenditure sufficient to defray the cost of 

 the necessary scientific investigation. Both in America and Western 

 Europe it has been proved that an accurate knowledge and continuous 

 observation of the adjoining oceans are essential in such investigations. 

 It is well known that the general track of all weather changes 

 in Southern Australia is from west to east, and hence we are deeply 

 interested in the oceanography of the Indian Ocean to the west and 

 south-west of Australia. With my own limited opportunities I have 

 been able to detect a connection between the variations of the surface 

 temperatures of Bass Strait and the character of the Victorian seasons. 

 Mr. H. C. Russell, then chief of the Sydney Observatory, informed 

 me that he had evidence of an abnormal northing in the westerly 

 winds of the Indian Ocean during the periods over which I had noted 

 high sea temperatures in Bass Strait, causing a drift towards Australia 

 of waters from the warmer parts of that ocean, whilst the low tempera- 

 tures were coincident with periods in which the southings were more 

 prevalent and the drifts carried greater proportions of the cold Antarctic 

 waters. If such results can be obtained from the comparatively 

 cursory observations made by an individual during his leisure moments, 

 what valuable information may be obtainable from a thoroughlv 

 scientific national investigation ? 



The lines on which such an iiivestigation should be commenced 

 would be as follows : — Soundings sufficiently close to give reliable 

 information as to the general conditions of the ocean floor should be 

 made from 150° E. longitude to 60° E. longitude, and extending from, say, 

 50° S. latitude to the coastline, or to 20° S. latitude. Preferably the 

 soundings would be carried along meridian lines, say 5° apart, a sound- 

 ing being taken on each line at each degree of latitude. Whilst at 

 every sounding the temperatures and densities of surface and bottom 

 waters would be observed, at every fifth sounding these should be 

 observed at every 100 fathoms or 200 fathoms. The information 

 thus obtained would give a good base, and positions at which closer 

 sounding might be desirable could then be determined. Such a pro- 

 gramme would involve 19 lines of soundings, averaging about 25 in 

 each, and about 30,000 miles of steaming, irrespective of distances 

 travelled for supplies, &c., whilst, under favorable circumstances, 

 probably 18 soundings could be taken per week. Allowing for delays 

 the work would probably take about 18 months, and if carried out 

 with a small steamer might cost about £15,000. In addition arrange- 

 ments should be made for all vessels trading to Australia via the Cape 

 or the Suez Canal to supply a complete meteorological log to the Com- 

 monwealth weather office, giving information relative to the Indian 

 Ocean similar to that supplied by many such vessels to the 

 Meteorological Office in London, whilst our weather office staff should 

 be numerically strong enough to promptly analyse and digest the in- 

 formation thus obtained, and before the conditions to which it applied 



