116 THE LIFE OF JAMES D. FOItSES. [CHAP. 



immediately printed. I have proposed Airy as our 

 honorary F.K.S.E., and hope sooifc to communicate his 

 election. Pray tell him I shall be happy to have the 

 polarizing grinder any time before the middle of 

 March. . . . Have you anything to say about the 

 Rumford Medal ? I think Melloni ought certainly to get 

 it, for his two masterly papers in the Annales de Chimie. 

 There have been few of the adjudications for researches 

 so accurately fulfilling the founder's intentions. . . .' 



To SIR J. F. W. HERSCHEL, at the Cape of Good Hope. 



'EDINBURGH, February 5th, 1835. 



'I had a letter from Whewell the other day, com- 

 municating your obliging message to me about your very 

 interesting meteorological results. Still I am a little 

 at a loss what to say about them. The oscillation 

 appears very small. My formula : '1193 cos * '0150 

 gives "060 Eng. inches. Mr. Whewell mentioned to me 

 only *025 of variation from 9 to 3. The permanent 

 low pressure at Cape Horn observed by Captain King 

 is confirmed by Foster's voyage. The annual variation 

 of mean pressure and also of hourly oscillation you 

 mention is noticed by Humbolt in equatorial climates. 

 Is the barometer highest in summer or winter ? I fear 

 we are likely to find little analogous to your observations 

 at the Cape in the Mediterranean. The oscillation is 

 undoubtedly greater : and I do not think the barometer 

 is highest in bad weather. The variable pressure in 

 different latitudes is a very important and to me, till 

 lately, an unexpected fact. I hope that you will be able 

 to bring your barometer safely home again, and so 

 determine the height of your observatory. I hope you 

 have your actinometer with you ; here it has a sinecure, 

 there being no sun worth measuring. 



' I am very much to blame for not having written to 

 you sooner. In truth, I have been in an almost constant 

 state of exertion since we parted at Cambridge. The 

 result of my last labours I enclose, and should be anxious 



