r8 5 



judgment as to whether the same data would have induced 

 us to issue a warning. 



As to the Azores or the Faroes, no cable has yet been 

 laid to either group of islands, and it does not seem likely 

 that any will soon be in existence ; for the expense of an 

 ocean cable is so great, that there is no chance of its being 

 a paying speculation unless it holds out prospects of con- 

 siderable commercial utility. These cannot be put forward 

 in either of the cases cited, for no great trade exists on 

 those lines. To give an idea of the amount of money 

 required to lay and maintain such a cable I may say that 

 one project required a guarantee of international support 

 from all the Meteorological offices of Northern Europe, 

 the quota from this country for three daily reports being 

 ; 3,000 a year, one-fifth of our annual grant from Parlia- 

 ment. It is therefore evident enough that for the present 

 we must give up the immediate prospect of Atlantic island 

 stations. 



As to news from the surface of the Atlantic itself, the 

 idea of mooring ships and connecting them by telegraphic 

 cable with the shore, has been often mooted, and there is 

 a plan for it in the present Exhibition, but it has never 

 been carried into practice ; and until the lighthouse autho- 

 rities have established telegraphic communication with their 

 light ships, we need not expect to establish it with a ship 

 in mid-ocean, even if we could succeed in mooring and 

 keeping her there. 



To give an idea of the extent to which storms striking 

 our coasts could really be predicted by means of reports 

 from America, my friend Captain Hoffmeyer, the head of 

 the Danish meteorological service, who has published daily 

 weather maps of the Atlantic for the space of three and 

 a quarter years, in a pamphlet which appeared in 1880 



