642 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



ued lo do, the while strugghng to regain the easterly course, till the 31st of August 

 when it almost disappeared, yet on the first of September it regained its strength 

 and direction and with great speed went on a high line toward the east, creating 

 thunder-storms and making it very hot on the line of its course. 



Such are the freaks of " High " and the manner in which it not only unfre- 

 quently becomes the positive in the place of the negative element in a storm. 



The storm of the 27th of August at Charleston well illustrates the absurdity 

 of attempting to foretell the weather weeks and months in advance, and how the 

 world — all who will not heed the weather-map — may be deceived by some igno- 

 rant " weather-prophet." 



Mr. Vennor has complained that the press of the country has not done him 

 justice, though probably there never was a man for whom the press has done so 

 much; and that too when to take his part was to expose their own ignorance. 



When a man puts himself on record in public print he establishes something 

 whereby he must stand or fall. If what he says be sensible and true it will be of 

 credit to him, if on the contrary he states that which is absurd and erroneous, it 

 is the most powerful means whereby he can bring discredit upon himself, perhaps 

 not immediately, but most surely when the world is advanced sufficiently to judge 

 the matter. 



On the 25th of September, in the Boston Sunday Herald, Mr. Vennor in a 

 long letter made the most absurd claims for the work of the year and wound up 

 by claiming the storm which came up from St. Thomas and centered over Charles- 

 ton, S. C, August 27th, because he had said that on the " 25th and 26th of 

 August there would be storms on the lakes and around New York." He was, he 

 said, only a little off on dates and locality, but it was the storm H). 



People not familiar with the weather-map cannot see or understand the full 

 absurdity of this claim, any more than if they were unfamiliar with the geography 

 of the country, and some one should tell them that Charleston, S. C, was on the 

 St. Lawrence; yet geographically it would not be a greater mistake to place 

 Montreal on the South Carolina coast, or Charleston on the St. Lawrence, than 

 meteorologically for a man to claim that the storm that was over Charleston on 

 the 27th of August was identical with the one that Mr. Vennor said would be, 

 but was not, over the lakes and St. Lawrence on the 25th and 26th. 



Not only Mr. Vennor, but all would-be meteorologists had better study well 

 the weather-map ere they put themselves on record as weather-prophets. The 

 weaiher-map is one of the grandest incentives to science the world ever knew, 

 and it is the only medium whereby we may understand the weather. It is one of 

 the strangest things in the world that the intelligent classes so neglect and com- 

 pletely ignore this, the only instrument and medium whereby they can study the 

 geography of the atmosphere. The files of this map in years to come will put to 

 shame all weather-prophets and their absurd systems. It would seem if they 

 had any regard for the future that they would see this and would discontinue 

 their absurd publications. 



Washington, D. C, December, 1881. 



