72 REPORT—1896. 
The large inquiry carried on by Dr. Buchan and Mr. Omond for some 
years, and reported on to the British Association in preceding Reports, on 
the influence of fog or cloud and clear weather respectively on the diurnal 
fluctuations of the barometer has been extended into other regions of the 
globe, notably into the Arctic regions, particularly over the ocean, the 
data employed being the observations made by Mohn, during 1876-78, 
over the Norwegian Sea and the Arctic Ocean, and those by the expedition 
of the Austrians in Jan Mayen, and ocean in the neighbourhood, in 
1882-83. The inquiry will be completed in a few months, and the results 
will be communicated to the next meeting of the British Association. 
For the contribution of the observations necessary to the carrying out 
of these inquiries the directors of the Ben Nevis Observatories have 
resolved to establish a temporary station, intermediate in height between 
the two Observatories, for the purpose of ascertaining with greater pre- 
cision than has hitherto been possible the extent to which anticyclones 
descend on the mountain, and more particularly the relations of pressure, 
temperature, and humidity at the new station as compared with the 
observations at Fort William and the summit of Ben Nevis. A suitable 
situation was formally obtained from the tenant on August 14,a complete 
set of instruments procured, and the building materials conveyed for the 
enlargement of the present hut to accommodate Mr. Muir, one of the 
assistant masters of the High School of Edinburgh, who had volunteered 
his services as observer till the close of September. The height of the 
hut, where the barometer is placed, is 2,196 feet, or nearly midway in 
height between the two Observatories ; und the thermometer, rain-gauge, 
and other instruments are placed 30 yards distant above the hut over a grass 
plot on a slight ridge, which will to a large extent secure that the down- 
flowing cold-air currents which set in from terrestrial radiation chiefly at 
night will pass down on each side, thus protecting the thermometers from 
their disturbing influence. 
The Application of Photography to the Elucidation of Meteorologicat 
Phenomena.—Siath Report of the Committee, consisting of Myr. 
G. J. Symons (Chairman), Professor R. Metpota, Mr. J. 
Hopkinson, and Mr. A. W. CLAYDEN (Secretary). (Drawn up by 
the Secretary.) 
Durine the past year the attention of your Committee has been almost 
entirely confined to the determination of cloud altitudes by the photo- 
graphic method briefly sketched in former reports. As this method 
differs considerably from those which have been employed elsewhere, and 
as it has been found to give very satisfactory results, it seems desirable to 
give a fuller description of the apparatus than appears in the report of 
two years back, in which it was first indicated. 
The observations are carried on upon a level piece of ground close to 
Exeter, between some workshops and shunting lines belonging to the 
London and South-Western Railway Company, who have given your 
Committee an agreement providing for the use of the site on payment of 
a nominal rent of 17. per annum. This ground is conveniently near the 
residence of the Secretary to your Committee : it provides an excellent 
sky view without interference of trees or buildings, and, being the property 
of the railway company, is under a certain amount of supervision. 
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