56 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



These usually commence in the Caribbean sea, move first toward the 

 northwest, and gradually curving round before they reach our lati- 

 tude, take an easterly direction, as has been shown by Redfield and 

 others. 



The first practical application which was attempted of the prin- 

 ciple we have mentioned was made by this Institution in 1856; 

 the information conveyed by telegraphic despatches in regard to 

 the weather was daily exhibited by means of differently colored 

 tokens, on a map of the United States, so as to show at one view the 

 meteorological condition of the atmosphere over the whole country. 

 At the same time publication of telegraphic despatches was made 

 in the newspapers. The system, however, was necessarily discon- 

 tinued at the beginning of the war, and has not yet been resumed. 

 Similar applications have since been made in other countries, par- 

 ticularly in England, under the late Admiral Fitzroy; in France, un- 

 der Leverrier; and still later, in Italy. In the last-mentioned country 

 tabular statements are to be published annually r comparing the pre- 

 dictions with the weather actually experienced. 



The British government has also recently introduced the system of 

 telegraphic meteorological predictions into India. The cyclone of 

 October, 1864, which did such damage to the shipping in Calcutta 

 and destroyed the lives of sixty thousand persons, called special at- 

 tention to the subject. The Asiatic Society of Bengal estimated the 

 cost of such a system at 67,000 rupees, (about $30,000,) a sum which 

 the government hesitated to appropriate, though it decided to fur- 

 nish the necessary instruments and an allowance of fifty rupees a 

 month to the assistant at the telegraph station at Saugor, on the sea- 

 board to the southward of Calcutta, in the direction from which the 

 most severe storms approach that port. 



It must be evident, from what we have said in regard to the move- 

 ment of storms, that a system of telegraphic meteorological predic- 

 tions would be at once more reliable and of more benefit to the 

 eastern coast of the United States, than those made in England and 

 France, on the western coast of Europe, could possibly be to those 

 countries, since the disturbances of the atmosphere which reach them 

 advance from the ocean, while the majority of those of a similar nature 

 which visit especially the middle and eastern portions of our coast, 

 come overland from a westerly or southwesterly direction, and their 

 approach may be telegraphed in some cases many hours before their 

 actual arrival. 



But the expense of the proper establishment of a system of this kind 



