308 Correspondence with the Board of Trade [June, 



make any suggestions as to the extent to which it should be carried, and 

 the form in which it should be done ? 



" 9. Have the Royal Society any general suggestions to make as to the 

 mode, place, or establishment in, at, or by which the duties of the Meteo- 

 rological Department can best be performed ? 



" With respect to these heads of inquiry, My Lords desire to observe, 

 in the first place, that they understand that the Admiralty are willing to 

 undertake, and to place in the hands of their Hydrographer, all those 

 observations which can properly be made use of in framing charts for pur- 

 poses of Navigation, but not those which relate to Meteorology proper. 



" Secondly. That the Board of Trade will gladly place the knowledge 

 and services of Mr. Babington, Admiral Fitzroy's second, at the disposal 

 of the Royal Society, for the purpose of the above inquiries, and will also 

 give them any help, clerical or otherwise, which the Royal Society may 

 require, and which the Board of Trade may be able to give. 



" I have the honour to be, 



"Sir, 

 " Your obedient Servant, 



"T. H. FARRER." 

 " The President of the Royal Society." 



Report by Mr. Babington on Forecasts and Storm-warnings, communicated 

 with Mr. Farrer's Letter. 



" Meteorological Department, 

 May 11, 1865. 



" The following is an attempt to comply with a request from Mr. Farrer 

 for some explanation, in a few words, of the method adopted in this De- 

 partment with regard to Forecasts and Storm Warnings the basis on which 

 forecasts have been made and cautions given. 



" Admiral FitzRoy has devoted three chapters (XIII., XIV., XV.) of 

 his 'Weather Book' to this particular subject. I do not think the matter 

 can be thoroughly comprehended without reference to those chapters. 

 The very brief explanation which follows here must necessarily be most 

 incomplete. 



"About ten o'clock each morning (except Sundays) telegrams are re- 

 ceived here from about eighteen places round our own coasts, from a few 

 French ports, and from Heligoland. These telegrams report (in cipher, 

 for brevity) the state of the atmosphere, including pressure, temperature, 

 wind direction and force, degree of dryness, rainfall, state of sky and sea, 

 at each station. 



" The observations thus telegraphed are immediately reduced, or cor- 

 rected, for scale-errors, elevation, and temperature, and are written into 

 prepared forms. 



" The first copy, with all the telegrams, is passed to the chief of the 

 department, or the person appointed by him, to be studied for that day's 



