LOW BAROMETER OF ANTARCTIC ZONE. 285 



THE LOW BAROMETER OF THE ANTARCTIC 

 TEMPERATE ZONE. 



THE great difficulty presented by the science of 

 meteorology lies in the intricate combination of causes 

 producing atmospheric variations, and the impossi- 

 bility of determining by experiment the relative 

 efficiency even of the most important agents of change. 

 As Sir \V. Herschel well observed, we are in the 

 position of a man who hears at intervals a few frag- 

 ments of a long history narrated in a prosy, un- 

 methodical manner. ' A host of circumstances omitted 

 or forgotten, and the want of connection between the 

 parts, prevent the hearer from obtaining possession of 

 the entire history. Were he allowed to interrupt the 

 narrator, and ask him to explain the apparent contra- 

 dictions, or to clear up doubts at obscure points, he 

 might hope to arrive at a general view. The questions 

 that we would address to Nature, are the very experi- 

 ments of which we are deprived in the science of 

 meteorology.' l 



It is, therefore, but seldom in the study of this 

 science that we meet with phenomena to which we can 

 assign a definite cause, or which we can explain on 

 simple principles. Even those marked phenomena, 

 which appear most easily referable to simple agencies, 



1 Kaemtz's Meteord'.ogy. 



