188 Mr. Atkinson’s Meteorological Remarks. 
that locality has a great deal to do with the kind of winds 
prevalent at each place. On the 30th of September, in the pre- 
sent year, the easterly winds began to below here, and con- 
tinued without intermission till the 8th of October; and from 
the 26th of August to the 2nd of September, easterly winds 
also prevailed: but while these winds were altogether light, 
scarcely approaching to the character of a breeze, the west- 
erly winds, which prevailed from the 2nd to the 29th of Sep- 
tember, were very strong, and on several days, especially on 
the 28th of September, might be called gales. 
Sir G. Mackenzie’s remarks as to the easterly winds having 
lately come much charged with moisture will, I find on re- 
ference to my journal, apply to Carlisle as well as Coul; for 
on looking back at those days on which easterly winds have 
prevailed during the past year, I finda great proportion noted 
as drizzly or showery. 
I have also remarked that easterly winds have become 
much more prevalent here of late years than was wont to be the 
case, while the south-westerly have of late been decreasing in 
number. Whether this excess of easterly winds is likely to 
continue, or will only be for a year or two, it is of course al- 
most impossible to tell, but I am inclined to think it only 
temporary. It is rather remarkable that in the month of Fe- 
bruary last (1835) the wind never blew from an easterly 
point for even a quarter of aday. The month of May seems 
to be the one in which easterly winds have most prevailed 
here for the last two years. 
The observations which are made at the Apartments of the 
Royal Society in London must surely be very loosely taken, 
for I often find the height of the thermometer as noted at 
3P.M., to exceed the maximum! This most probably arises 
from the use of two thermometers, having either different 
scales, or else hanging in different positions. This cireum- 
stance, added to the evidently too small quantity of rain which 
used to be given as the results of the observation of the rain- 
gauge (but which have lately been seemingly better attended 
to), shake the faith of the meteorologist in any of the observa- 
tions published under the sanction of the Royal Society. 
Surely there ought to be one maker appointed to construct 
every instrument used by Societies, whether Royal or not, 
and by those who, living at a distance from towns, would still 
wish to compare their observations with those of others. The 
great attention which is now paid to meteorology as a branch 
of science demands that something should be done to secure 
the agreement of all instruments used by observers of the 
weather. Several pages of some scientific Journal should 
