306 Correspondence with the Board of Trade [June, 



Correspondence between the Board of Trade and the Royal Society in 

 reference to the Meteorological Department*. 



From T. H. Farrer, Esq., Marine Secretary of the Board of Trade, to 

 General Sabine. 



"Board of Trade, Whitehall, 

 26 May, 1865. 



" SIR, I am directed by the Lords of the Committee of Privy Council 

 for Trade, on the occasion of the vacancy in the Office of Chief of their 

 Meteorological Department, caused by the untimely death of Admiral 

 FitzRoy, to request you to be so good as to bring under the notice of the 

 President and Council of the Royal Society the correspondence which 

 took place between that Society and this Office at the time of the institu- 

 tion of the Meteorological Department as a branch of this Office ; and 

 particularly your letter of the 22nd February, 1855f, in reply to that from 

 this Office of the 3rd of June, 1854, in which, when about to institute the 

 Department, My Lords had desired the opinion of the Royal Society as to 

 what were the great desiderata in Meteorological Science. The recom- 

 mendations of the Royal Society conveyed in your letter of the 22nd of 

 February, 1855, were adopted as the basis of the proceedings of the Me- 

 teorological Department ; instruments were provided, logs were prepared, 

 furnished, and returned to the office, and some progress was made in 

 carrying into effect the original programme. 



"But in 1859 or 1860, the French Government having adopted a 

 system of telegraphing and publishing the actual state of weather from 

 one place to another, cooperation in which was urged on the Board of 

 Trade by a Committee of the British Association and by Admiral Fitz- 

 Roy, My Lords gave their sanction to what was proposed, and thence- 

 forward a considerable part of the vote previously applied to obtaining 

 and digesting observations was diverted to these Telegrams. In 1861 

 Admiral FitzRoy grafted on this system of telegraphic communication a 

 system of forecasting the weather (the forecasts being published in the 

 daily papers), and, on occasions of anticipated storms, the giving of special 

 warnings, communicated by telegraph to the different Ports, and there 

 made known by hoisting certain signals. The whole, or almost the whole, 

 of the Funds originally voted for the purpose of observations were thus 

 diverted from their original scientific object to an object deemed more im- 

 mediately practical. 



" In 1863, on the occasion of an increased estimate for the purpose of 

 these forecasts, it was determined to compare the forecasts and the warn- 

 ings with the actual results. 



" As regards the daily forecasts, the daily reports of weather published 

 by Admiral FitzRoy afforded, and still afford, ample means of checking 

 them. 



" As regards the storm-warnings, detailed reports were called for from 



* Published by order of the Council. t Proceedings, vol. vii. p. 342. 



