1 897-] "Weather." . 57 



We in Canada have not a separate weather bureau, the 

 Meteorological Service being under the Marine and Fisheries 

 Department. However, it is very efficient and connpares favor- 

 ably with the best anywhere. The proof of this statement rests 

 on the fact of the very high percentage of weather forecasts that 

 are subsequently verified. 



In passing, let me say that the head office of the Meteoro- 

 logical Service should be in Ottawa, where the head offices of 

 all other branches of the public service are. There is no doubt 

 that its efficiency could thereby be increased, and we would 

 simply be following what other countries have done and found 

 advantageous. In England London, (Kew) ; in the United 

 States, Washington ; in France, Paris ; in Russia, St. Petersburg, 

 are the central stations. The idea entertained in some quarters 

 that it should be at some port on account of the shipping 

 interests, to give warning to vessels, is not sound. What above 

 all things the central station requires is a good telegraph ser- 

 vice, in the first place to receive the bi-daily weather reports 

 from all over the continent, and in the second place to send out 

 in all directions the weather forecasts. A good telegraph service 

 being granted our weather office might be in Muskoka, however, 

 as before stated, for administrative purposes, it should be in 

 close touch with the Department to which it belongs, and hence 

 in Ottawa. 



All skilled meteorologists realize how comparatively local 

 are weather conditions and how impossible it is at times to make 

 prediction for a definite period with any feeling of certainty. 

 The forecaster, then, has to bear in mind that weather conditions 

 are largely local, due to topographical features already spoken of, 

 and so must study with such fact prominently in view the 

 configuration aud physical outlines of a country which have such 

 important bearings on the development, progress and movement 

 of storms as to render it essential that the predictor shall have 



