57 ft Royal Society of London. 



of the above paper, containing a great variety of isolated 

 facts of the most extraordinary and unaccountable fluctua- 

 tions or stagnations of the mercury in the baromeier and 

 thermometer. 



On that evening Messrs. Lac^p^de and Cuvier, of Paris ; 

 M. Prevot, of Geneva; and Mr. Charles Harding, of Bre- 

 men, the discoverer of the new planet Juno, were elected 

 fellows of the Royal Society of London, in the foreign list. 



April 24. The President in the chair. — Continuation of 

 captain Flinders's meteorological reflections, in which the 

 author seemed to believe that he had accumulated sufficient 

 data to enable him, with a seaman's experience, to prognos- 

 ticate truly the general state of the weather, and the approach 

 or continuance of a storm, by the assistance of his barometric 

 observations. This desideratum is doubtless within the 

 sphere of human science, and might be attained by atten- 

 tion and industry, only in the course of a few years, if every 

 captain of a vessel would bestow on it the same attention as 

 captain Flinders, and communicate his observations with 

 equal promptness. The number, talents, and opportunities 

 of our naval officers render it extraordinary that they have 

 not before this time collected such a multitude of facts as 

 the philosopher in his cabinet could arrange and digest into 

 a practical system, that would enable the navigator to anti- 

 cipate the direction and strength of the wind in every lati- 

 tude, and at all seasons of the year. There exists, indeed, at 

 the present moment,a great deal of meteorologicaMcnowledge, 

 among individuals of our seamen, unknown to many of our 

 meteorologists, and equally unprofitable to the public, merely 

 from diffidence in the observers to write down their observa- 

 tions. 



It may not be improper to add here a peculiarity of the 

 marine atmosphere, not observed by this minute narrator of 

 facts, nor perhaps by any other seaman, namely, that the 

 air or wind always traverses the sea in distinct masses or 

 bodies, and in parallel lines. It is a fact, to which there 

 are few exceptions, that a current of air, whatever may be 

 its direction or velocity, uniformly travels in a right line at 

 sea, till it is either entirely absorbed or its power exhausted 



by 



