330 Cyclones. 



discover the law, if not of their production, at least of their 

 progress, must accordingly be regarded as one of the greatest 

 benefits to navigation. In pursuit of this laudable object, by 

 carefully examining the log-books of vessels overtaken in these 

 winds, Capper, Piddington, Redfield, and Reid were first led to 

 discover the theory of cyclones, which, brought under a simple 

 point of view by Dove, has since acquired a scientific form, and, 

 to navigators at least, a character of the greatest importance. 

 Navigators who avail themselves of this knowledge enjoy 

 superior facilities, and possess greater immunity from danger 

 on the seas than their forefathers of the last generation could 

 have possibly foreseen. 



While the t( highway of nations" was thus rendered more 

 safe, and communication between distant countries was 

 remarkably facilitated, a system of meteorological telegraphy 

 on land, begun as early as the year 1856, was made to connect 

 the towns of Brussels, Geneva, Madrid, Rome, and Turin, 

 besides several towns in France, with Paris. In the hands of 

 its promoter, Mr. Lc Verrier, it offers facilities for extending 

 yet further the law of storms, in a manner which, in the sequel 

 of this article, will be explained. A similar system in the 

 Netherlands was undertaken in the year 1860, where four 

 towns, Maastricht, Groningen, the Helder, and Ylissingen, now 

 regularly transmit their daily observations of the weather, by 

 telegraph, to Utrecht. The example thus set was followed 

 by other countries. Towards the end of the year 1860, a more 

 perfect system of telegrams than any yet in use, including 

 coast-warnings in the case of storms, was introduced into 

 England by the late Admiral Fitzroy, whose barometers, and 

 Barometer Manual, were already regarded as the greatest boon 

 at many exposed stations of the coast. The project thus 

 originally carried out consists of daily telegrams from about 

 twenty British and neighbouring foreign ports, forming a daily 

 " weather report" of the British Islands. Compared with the 

 reports of the few preceding days, a "forecast," as it is 

 called, of the weather is produced ; and in the event of the 

 passage of a dangerous storm, its track and rate of progress 

 are announced by telegraph to the threatened ports, where the 

 well-known cautionary signals of the " drum and cone" are 

 exhibited, in time to warn mariners of the consequences of 

 its approach. 



The first coast-warnings, on this principle, were sent to 

 Shields on the 6th of February ; and the first Aveather-forecast 

 was published on the 1st of August, 1861. Since then, con- 

 tinuously up to the present time, the Central Meteorological 

 Office in London has kept a daily watch upon the weather. 

 The results thus collected, and compiled in a series of valuable 



