82 OUR HERITAGE THE SEA 



telegraphic communication, meet with popular ridicule, 

 the empirical guesses of advertizing weather prophets, 

 without any other mental equipment than audacity, 

 still continue to impose upon the public credulity, 

 and there are enormous numbers of people to-day 

 who believe that a man without instruments, without 

 scientific knowledge of atmospheric conditions, and 

 without telegraphic information of what is going on 

 over vast areas of land and sea, can accurately forecast 

 the weather, not merely for days in advance, but for 

 years to come. 



