The Promise of Science 



moisture the current bears with it. Further, 

 there are the general air drifts, the Tropical and 

 Polar currents with which we can always reckon 

 and, from the knowledge obtained, deductions 

 are made for the coming weather. At present so 

 little is observed and the gaps through which 

 fresh currents or disturbances come are so pre- 

 valent that we cannot safely reckon on more than 

 twenty-four hours; but were these hiatuses 

 filled we could greatly extend our prophecies. 

 What we need is an observing eye everywhere. 

 We shall have it presently — in a century or so — 

 when the millions spent in war are diverted for 

 man's benefit to research work — we shall have 

 stations in every place — lightships will occupy 

 important sea centres, watching the Gulf Stream 

 and the Polar Drifts, observatories will perch upon 

 mountain tops or plateaux to notice the gather- 

 ing of clouds or the least increase in rainfall, and 

 at all inaccessible points the airship will hover 

 day and night to keep unsleeping guard. 



The higher strata, where it is now believed our 

 weather is brewed and regulated — that region' 

 where man cannot penetrate — the stretch of 

 atmosphere between five and forty miles upward — ■ 

 will be explored by kites or captive balloons which 

 will remain (there is always a current up above, 

 and the higher you get the stronger the wind), 



147 L2 



