314 Correspondence with the Board of Trade [Juno, 



serving the attention of a country possessing such extensive maritime faci- 

 lities and interests as ours, and as forming a suitable contribution on our 

 part to the general system of meteorological inquiry which had been adopted 

 by the principal continental states in Europe and America. 



" We have learnt from Mr. Babington that much was done by Admiral 

 FitzRoy in the three or four years succeeding the establishment of his 

 office (and before the subject of storm-warnings had engrossed the greater 

 part of his consideration), in directing the attention of many of the com- 

 manders of our merchant ships to the collection of suitable data, and in 

 improving their habits of observation and of record. The logs of such 

 vessels form at present a large collection of documents existing in the Office 

 of the Board of Trade, partially examined, and their contents partially 

 classified. The President and Council are glad to learn by your letter that 

 the further prosecution of this great and important branch of Hydrography 

 is about to be placed in the hands of the distinguished officer who now 

 presides over the Hydrographic Department of the Admiralty ; to whose 

 duties it appears indeed most appropriately to belong, and to whose office 

 no doubt the documents already collected will be transferred and made 

 available for public purposes. 



" There remain, therefore, to be noticed solely the considerations which 

 relate to 'Meteorology proper,' i. e. to the Land Meteorology of the 

 British Islands. We find that the principal States of the European con- 

 tinent have almost without exception formed establishments for the collec- 

 tion and publication periodically of the meteorology of their respective 

 countries. The arrangements consist usually of a central office, at which 

 instruments and instructions are provided for a number of stations, greater 

 or less, according to the area which they represent ; at which stations ob- 

 servations are made and transmitted to the central office, where the results 

 of all are reduced, coordinated, and published. The small extent of the 

 area comprised by the British Islands in comparison with the territories of 

 many of the European States, may require fewer stations ; but in a matter 

 now so generally attended to and provided for, it seems scarcely fitting 

 that our country should be behind others. There is, moreover, a peculia- 

 rity in the meteorological position of the British Islands in respect to 

 Europe generally as its north-western outpost, in consequence of which an 

 especial duty appears to devolve upon us. M. Matteucci, in a very recent 

 publication, has already made the important remark that extensive atmo- 

 spheric disturbances which first invade Ireland and England are those 

 which, in winter more especial!}-, extend to and pass the Alps (although 

 somewhat retarded by them), and spread over Italy and thus that, though 

 receiving telegrams announcing storms taking place in the North of 

 Europe, in Germany, on the western coasts of France, and of those of 

 Spain, he finds that it has in fact been most especially in the case of 

 announcements from England that storms so telegraphed have actually 



