METEOROLOGY 3 



turbing causes which are inseparable from the land, the 

 observer at sea is among the most favourable conditions 

 for investigating normal distributions as well as 

 seasonal and diurnal changes. 



There are, however, special difficulties in meteoro- 

 logical work at sea, caused by the impossibility of re- 

 maining in one place (for the sea is a highway, while 

 the land is a home ; and the seafarer is always changing 

 his latitude or his longitude, or both), and by the re- 

 stricted accommodation available for instruments, 

 which make impossible many of the arrangements 

 considered necessary on land. On balancing the 

 facilities and the difficulties of the study of meteorology 

 at sea, it becomes plain that the advantages resulting 

 from the greater simplicity of the problem to be 

 attacked are more than counterbalanced by the greater 

 difficulty of attacking it. 



Marine meteorology may be said to date from the 

 lime of Admiral Matthew Fontaine Maury, U.S.N., 

 whose " Physical Geography of the Sea," though out 

 of date as to facts, and somewhat fantastic as to 

 theories, remains a model book of popular science, 

 written by a man who was possessed of all the know- 

 ledge of his time, and afire with the enthusiasm of 

 research. At his instance an International Conference 

 was held at Brussels in 1853, when a plan was agreed 

 upon for a sort of federated national agency, each 

 country undertaking to encourage maritime meteoro- 

 logy, in accordance with general rules drawn up by 

 common agreement. As a result, the British Meteoro- 

 logical Office was formed, with world- wide marine 

 meteorology as its main field of work. The instruc- 

 tions issued by the Meteorological Office and the 

 instruments supplied through it should be known to 

 all who undertake any meteorological work at sea, 



