208 president's address— section e. 



have passed away. Thus attacked, there is a reasonable prospect 

 of the important problem of long-period weather forecasting being 

 solved for Australia. 



I am tempted to quote from Professor Gregory's address, already 

 referred to, as follows : — " In meteorology each continent must work 

 out its own salvation. Europe may help us with methods, but we 

 must apply them ourselves to our own waters before we can share in 

 the rewards. Patiently and excellently meteorologists all over Aus- 

 tralia are recording the daily changes of our weather ; but far out in 

 the great Sjuthern Ocean the fundamental processes that are deter- 

 mining the rainfall a year or two years ahead are passing unnoticed 

 and unknown. Australia ha 5 spent vast sums in irrigation works that 

 have failed through lack of water, and provides for accurate records 

 of present weather ; but for the sake of a few hundred pounds a year 

 we are leaving unstudied the causes that produce and control it. What 

 gift would be of more benefit to the vast agricultural interests of Aus- 

 tralia than a warning as to whether they must be prepared next year 

 to face a drought or a deluge ? The apparent fickleness and severity 

 of our climatic changes introduces as large an element of gambling into 

 our farming as there is, alas, in many of our reckless mining ventures. 

 The dragon of uncertainty that now preys on our agriculturists could 

 be defeated by foreknowledge of approaching spells of fair weather 

 and of foul. That knowledge is available, if we but seek it. For, 

 like the seer of old, modern science assures us, ' Cast thy bread on the 

 waters, and thou shalt find it again, though it may be not till after 

 many days.' " 



In conclusion, I wish to quote the able remarks of Lieut. Pillsbury, 

 in connection with his report on the Gulf Stream (U.S. Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey Report, 1890, page 471) : — " There is another reason 

 for studying these (oceanic) currents, which will ultimately have the 

 most beneficial influence on mankind. It is now known that the 

 currents vary, through certain forces acting upon them, by periodic 

 changes, entirely according to law, and again through apparently 

 erratic forces. Probably every motion of these vast bodies is • abso- 

 lutely governed by laws which can be ascertained. The moisture 

 and varying temperature of the land depends largely upon the positions 

 of these currents in the ocean, and it is thought that when we know 

 the laws of the latter we will, with the aid of meteorology, be able to 

 say to the farmers hundreds of miles distant from the sea, ' You will 

 have an abnormal amount of rain during next summer,' or ' The winter 

 will be cold and clear ' ; and by these predictions they can plant a 

 crop to suit the circumstances, or provide an unusual amount of food 

 for their stock. We will be able to say to the mariner, ' At such a 

 time the current will be so much an hour in such a direction,' and the 

 percentage of error will be but trifling. From a study of these great 

 forces, then, we derive our greatest benefits ; and any amount of well- 

 directed effort to gain a complete mastery of their laws will revert 

 directly to the good of the human race." 



