184 ON TWO STORMS EXPERIENCED THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES. 
observations spread over the country, would accomplish more in one year, than observa- 
tions at a few insulated posts, however accurate and complete, continued to the end of 
time. The United States are favourably situated for such an enterprise. Observations 
spread over a smaller territory would be inadequate, as they would not show the extent 
of any large storm. If we take a survey of the entire globe, we shall search in vain for 
more than one equal area, which could be occupied by the same number of trusty 
observers. In Europe there is opportunity for a like organization, but with this incum- 
brance, that it must needs embrace several nations of different languages and govern- 
ments. ‘The United States, then, afford decidedly the most hopeful field for such an 
enterprise. Shall we hesitate to embark in it; or shall we grope timidly along, as in 
former years? There are but few questions of science which can be prosecuted in this 
country to the same advantage as in Hurope. Here is one where the advantage is in 
our favour. Would it not be wise to devote our main strength to the reduction of this 
fortress? We need observers spread over the entire country at distances from each 
other not less than fifty miles. This would require five or six hundred observers for the 
United States. About half this number of registers are now kept, in one shape or 
another, and the number, by suitable efforts, might probably be doubled. Supervision 
is needed to introduce uniformity throughout, and to render some of the registers more 
complete. Is not such an enterprise worthy of the American Philosophical Society ? 
The general government have, for more than twenty years, done something, and have 
lately manifested a disposition to do more for this object. If private zeal could be more 
generally enlisted, the war might soon be ended, and men would cease to ridicule the 
idea of our being able to predict an approaching storm. 
