THE MA NIL A OBSER VA TOR Y 437 



mitting by wire, if possible, the forewarning of the typhoon to an}^ 

 province or provinces of tlie archipelago seriously threatened by the 

 !<torni, in order to i)repare them for emergencies. If the progress of 

 the tj'phoon becomes dangerous to Manila, tiien, not only during the 

 daytime but all through the night, if necessary, storm warnings, with 

 all important information, are transmitted to the public and to the 

 authorities more frequently, and if thought convenient special ac- 

 counts of the t3'phoon are sent to the chief officer of the port. In 

 short, every possible precaution is adopted by the observatory in order 

 to avoid any kind of disaster. The observatory takes an especial care 

 besides to warn all ship owners and shipmasters to beware of the 

 danger threatening ships on the high seas, and advice is given accord- 

 ingly to retain their vessels in the bay until the weather abates; in 

 case of sailing, the masters of the ships are cautioned regarding the 

 storm and the wa}' of escaping danger. 



But the warnings of the Manila Observatory have always, up to 

 the present, had a much wider circulation than in the islands of the 

 Philippine Archii)elago. In truth, many times cablegrams have 

 been sent to us, not only from Singapore and Hongkong, l)ut from 

 other outside ports, desiring information about the weather or about 

 the ])robable track a typhoon would follow, and if we thought it safe 

 for a shi[) to make the ti'ip to Manila. 'I'o these telegrams the ob- 

 servatory has always been very careful to answer with promptness 

 and ))recision. But we think it useless here to go on reiterating the 

 importance of the storm-warning cal)legrams sent from Manila to 

 Hongkong, Macao, S:iigon, .Shanghai, and Tokio. The geograi)hical 

 position of the Manila Observatory gives it the great advantage over 

 all other observatories in the Far East of being able first to detect the 

 signs of approaching storms and transmit them to the coast of con- 

 tinental Asia and to the Japanese Empire. Experience shows that it 

 takes two or three days, and even more, for the center of a ty|)lioon 

 to cross the China Sea to the Asiatic seaboard, and if the track of the 

 storm curves round to the northeast, from three to ten days, and some- 

 times more, ela{)se before tlie center of the typhoon reaches Japan. 

 It is evident, therefore, that the storm warnings of the Manila Obser- 

 vatory are of the utmost advantage to the whole Asiatic and Japanese 

 coast line from Singapore up to Yokohama. This is th(^ reason why 

 the local governments of Hongkong, Saigon, Macao, Shanghai, and 

 the government of Japan are so much interested in the transmission 

 by cable of the typhoon warnings of the Manila Observatory. 



