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so as to point in any direction, and can be peaked to any 

 reasonable extent 



It is erected at the ports in Holland, and is set every 

 day according to the weather reports, and according 

 to the barometer readings taken that morning over the 

 kingdom. 



It is set so as to point from the highest to the lowest 

 barometer readings, and the angle at which it is set 

 indicates the amount of difference between those readings. 



Accordingly if the seaman looks at the apparatus he 

 sees from what point the wind will blow during the day, 

 and can form some idea of its probable force. 



It will be seen therefore that the system is intended for 

 daily, not only for occasional use. The idea is theoretically 

 good, but practically it is not easy, if you are at a distance, 

 to make out which end of the cross-bar is nearest to you, or 

 whether you are in front or at the back of the apparatus. 

 To aid you the two ends of the bar are marked differently, 

 and the two sides coloured differently ; but it is not easy 

 to make out the colours at a distance. 



In the United States the system is different from any- 

 thing we have in Europe. There flags are used, a red flag 

 with black square or a red lamp at night, indicating 

 dangerous winds from any direction, and a white flag with 

 black centre, or a white lamp at night, indicating dangerous 

 off shore winds, i.e., winds from north and west, and a ball 

 is hoisted to show that storm warning of some sort or other 

 has been issued. I may say, en passant, that it seems a 

 little remarkable that storm signals are hoisted at in 

 stations only over the whole United States, while we in 

 these islands have nearly 140 for a much smaller area. 



Having thus said something about the apparatus 

 employed to communicate storm warnings, let me now 



