1854.] 



SYSTEM OF SIMULTANEOUS METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 



243 



1st. It appears to me that both branches of the undertaking, 

 though resting on a philosophical foundation, are so decidedly 

 and essentially of a useful and beneficial public character, that 

 the Government should liberally bear a jjart in promoting them ; 

 but that, as done in the United States, that should be limited to 

 the expense of furnishing a set of well-adjusted instruments for 

 each station of observation, and otherwise evincing its readiness 

 to promote the execution of the work by authorizing all such 

 public officers as harbour-masters, lighthouse-keepers, and col- 

 lectors of customs, as it may be desirable to invite to act as local 

 observers to give their valuable assistance. 2dly. That the 

 Commander of the Forces should also be solicited to aid the un- 

 dertaking, by authorizing all medical officers in charge of military 

 hospitals to furnish the Institute with a copy of the Meteorolo- 

 gical Record transmitted by them periodically to the Inspector- 

 General of the Medical Department of the Arm}' in London. 

 3dly. Nor should the expectation of the very valuable co-opera- 

 tion of the Governor of the Hudson's Bay territory be overlooked. 

 In addition to which powerful public support, I would, 4thly, 

 respectfully invite the co-operation of every University and Col- 

 lege, and other educational institutions, as well as of every asso- 

 ciation for the advancement of knowledge, throughout the Pro- 

 vince, whether known by the more dignified titles of literary 

 and scientific, or the less imposing though highly influential 

 names of Mechanics' Institutes, or agricultural, mercantile, or 

 other literary associations ; in short, every public or private indi- 

 vidual of known philosophical and observant repute in suitable 

 parts of the country ; among all whom, I am persuaded, an effi- 

 cient corps of zealous and accurate volunteer observers would 

 ere long be enrolled, that would do equal justice and credit to the 

 undertaking. Nor need we stop there ; for, as elsewhere hinted, 

 I am convinced that it only requires to place our patriotic object 

 in a proper point of view to induce the public-spirited directors 

 of. our now wide-spread lines of electric telegraphs to add also, to 

 a reasonable extent, their gratuitous valuable co-operation in the 

 laudable undertaking. 



What, then, it may now be asked, are the great public benefits 

 expected to be derived from the proposed arrangement ? And 

 what is the system of observations to be adopted ? As regards 

 the more important meteorological branch of the subject, I am 

 fortunately able to reply, that instead of presuming on any fan- 

 cied merits in my own unscientific predilections and observations 

 as accumulated from year to year, I am prepared to adduce the 

 far more authoritative language of the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science, which has for some years been so 

 ably emulating the noble example in our own loved fatherland, 

 as recorded at their great meeting at Albany in 1851, at the in- 

 stance of their zealous associates, Professor Guyotof Cambridge, 

 Massachusetts, and Doctor Hough of New York. 



On that occasion the former of these gentlemen read a paper 

 on the progress of the system of meteorological observations con- 

 ducted by the Smithsonian Institution, and the propriety of its 

 immediate extension throughout the whole North American 

 continent and West Indies, in the course of which he showed the 

 importance of these observations to a thorough knowledge of 

 meteorology, and circulated plates and sheets prepared for the 

 direction of observers, and exhibited the instruments provided by 

 that Association, as well as printed tables exemplifying the results 

 which had been obtained in one place, from observations taken 

 three times a day, at 6 a.m., 2 p.m., and 10 P.M., of the me- 

 teorological state of the atmosphere, as follows — the phases of 

 the moon ; the barometrical indications ; the height of the ther- 

 mometer; the direction of the wind; the state of the psychro- 

 meter; the force of the vapour; humidity; state of rain-guage ; 



state of the clouds; plants in flower; migration of birds; and 

 various other notices. The Professor also observed that there 

 were but fifty places as yet established, and pointed out 

 various other wide-spread positions at which observations ought 

 to be taken, ranging from the mouths of the Columbia to the 

 St Lawrence, from San Francisco to Washington, from the Gulf 

 of California to the Rio-del-Norte, from the Pacific across the 

 plateau of Mexico to the West Indies, from the Isthmus of Te- 

 huantepec at Nicaragua Lake, at the plateau of Costa-Rica, and 

 at the Straits of Panama to Chagres.* 



Following up the same interesting subject, Dr. Hough, in an- 

 other article on the meteorological observations carried on in the 

 State of New York, from 1825 to 1850, observed — what is well 

 worthy of attention and imitation in British America — that in 

 the year 1825, the Regents of the University of New York, fol- 

 lowing the example of the Federal Government in its instructions 

 to the commandants of its various military posts, issued orders to 

 the several academies subject to its visitation, requiring them to 

 cause meteorological observations to be made after a specified 

 form and with instruments furnished to them for that purpose. 

 These observations, like the foregoing, embraced three daily re- 

 cords of the thermometer, with the direction of the wind and the 

 appearance of the sky, as clear or cloudy in the forenoon and 

 afternoon : a record of the rain guage, and such observations on 

 storms, meteors, auroras, and the progress of vegetation, &c, as 

 might be deemed worthy of note; and that this system of ob- 

 servations was maintained with more or less regularity for twenty- 

 four years by sixty- two literary institutions; and the results, 

 published annually in the reports of the Regents, had been ac- 

 knowledged, both in the United States and in Em-ope, as valuable 

 contributions to the science of meteorology ; but were disconti- 

 nued in 1849, to give place to the present thorough and efficient 

 course of observations. 



Dr. Hough then observed that these twenty-five years' obser- 

 vations, though without value in determining the extent and pro- 

 gress of storms and the various atmospherical vicissitudes indicated 

 by the delicate instruments now in use, were invaluable in estab- 

 lishing the laws of climate, the mean temperature, depth of rain, 

 and general character of the weather, &c, and that he had in 

 consequence undertaken the labour of reducing the entire series 

 of these records, with the intention of offering the results, when 

 completed, to the State Legislature for publication; and therefore 

 solicited the Association to refer the examination of the details 

 already prepared to the meteorological committee, with the view 

 of their expressing an opinion of their merits, and recommending 

 them, if thought worthy of it, to the favourable notice of the 

 Government, j- 



The meteorological committee accordingly undertook this duty 

 and concluded their labours by not only reporting favourably, 

 but also recommending the appointment of a special committee 

 to memorialize Congress in behalf of the immediate extension of 

 the system of meteorological observations now under the Smith- 

 sonian Institution; and that the Secretary of the Treasury should 

 provide the means; and further recommending the selection of 

 fifty additional stations (similarly supplied with instruments); 

 and also, after (as will be found quoted nearly verbatim below) 

 enumerating the various benefits to be expected from a wide- 

 extended system of scientific observations, proposing to supply 



* See Report of the Proceedings of the American Association, held 

 at Albany in 1851, pp. 167-8. 



f See Report of the Proceedings of the American Association, held 

 at Albany in 1851, pp. 171-2. 



