ON METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS ON BEN NEYIS. 39 



striking change of conditions which occnrred prognosticated settled 

 weather. Now in drawing up the memorandum for the Treasury all 

 these, as well as the other telegrams sent, were classed together by the 

 Meteorological Office and treated as if they had been intended by Mr. 

 Omond to be prognostic of storms, and the nineteen telegrams sent were 

 assumed to be all the warnings of storms which the observatory could 

 send to the office in London. From these data, so arranged for and 

 collected and interpreted, the decision was come to that ' in their exist- 

 ing form the telegrams from Ben Nevis are absolutely useless.' It might 

 have been predicted before a single telegram was received that no other 

 than such a decision could possibly have been arrived at. 



While the statement that ' in their existing form the telegrams are 

 absolutely useless ' is thus unquestionably correct, it is nevertheless void of 

 all meaning as respects the matter in hand. What has been done is not 

 an investigation, and it is not science. But the statement underwent a 

 transforming process in its passage to the House of Commons, appearing 

 in this form, viz., ' The Ben Nevis observations are absolutely useless in 

 forecasting weather ' — a statement of which it is enough to say that it 

 is incorrect. The Meteorological Office has yet to take the first step 

 towards commencing an investigation into the utility of the Ben Nevis 

 observations for forecasting purposes. 



On the other hand the Council of the Scottish Meteorological Society, 

 strengthened as regards the Direction of the observatory by rei^resenta- 

 tives of the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh and the Philo- 

 sophical Society of Glasgow, includes men of equal scientific merit with 

 any other Meteorological Council in the country ; and after some years' 

 investigation their opinion is that the Ben Nevis observations are of the 

 highest utility in the development of meteorology and in framing forecasts 

 of storms and weather for the British Islands. 



Fourth Report of the Covimittee, consisting of Professor Balfour 

 Stewart (Secretary), Mr. J. Knox Laughton, Mr. G. J. Stmons, 

 Mr. K. H. Scott, and Mr. Gr. Johnstone Stoney, appointed for 

 the purpose of co-operating with Mr. E. J. Lowe in his project 

 of establishing on a permanent and scientific basis a Meteoro- 

 logical Observatory near Chepstoiu. 



This Committee met at 22 Albemarle Street on March 26, and passed the 

 following resolution : — 



' As your Committee have heard no further results from the action 

 referred to by Mr. Lowe in his letter quoted in their last report, and there 

 thus appears to be an absence of local support, they see no prospect of 

 the scheme ever being cai'ried out. The fundamental idea presiding over 

 the establishment of the observatory was that it should be one of perma- 

 nence, and hence it is obvious that adequate endowment is essential. To 

 provide this, and properly equip the observatory, several thousand pounds 

 are needed ; but the Committee have no assurance that anything at all 

 approaching the necessary amount has yet been subscribed or even 

 promised. As they have now been in existence for between three and 



