THE WINDS OF THE OCEAN 81 



was his knowledge of the winds at all seasons and 

 in all the oceans, knowledge which in some men 

 attained an almost superhuman height of excellence. 

 But, after all, the work of the winds as motive power 

 for ships was even then of small consideration com- 

 pared with their work in acting as the lungs of the 

 world. The vast and regular influences of the atmo- 

 sphere about the surface of our globe, fraught as they 

 are with consequences of the highest import to man- 

 kind, have ever been made the subject of earnest 

 inquiry by only a very few, and even those who 

 have devoted a lifetime of closest research into the 

 causes and effects of the wind have had to confess 

 that the fruits of their labours have been scanty, while 

 the laws that govern the movements of these mighty 

 elemental currents are even now but imperfectly 

 understood. 



Much ignorant ridicule has been poured upon the 

 work of meteorologists, and a great deal of obloquy, 

 quite undeserved, has been meted out to them because 

 of their frequent inability to predict coming storms and 

 changes of weather. But if those who scoff and jeer 

 would only pause to consider the difficulties under 

 which those devoted scientists labour, we should per- 

 haps hear less of the pseudo wit levelled at weather 

 prophets. Even to-day the words of Holy Writ re- 

 main true, and apparently are likely so to remain : 

 " The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest 

 the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh 

 or whither it goeth." 



Unfortunately, while the labours of scientific meteor- 

 ologists, aided by observation of the most carefully 

 constructed instruments, and a splendid service of 



a 



