334 The Low Barometer of the Antarctic Temperate Zone. 



It must be borne in mind, in weighing the advantages and 

 disadvantages of the electric light, that no new contrivance 

 has ever been rendered perfect, at once. For any other pur- 

 pose but that of a lighthouse, the electric light is sufficiently 

 reliable ; and it is only because the slightest interruption of 

 the light, in a lighthouse, would be fraught with the most 

 imminent peril to life and property, that extraordinary pre- 

 cautions are deemed necessary by the Trinity House — 

 precautions which are rarely justified by an actual failure of 

 the electric light, but which, from its possible occurrence, are 

 indispensable. 



Should improvement advance so far, that the electric light 

 will become entirely reliable, which, however, seems very im- 

 probable, if not impossible, duplicates of at least the more solid 

 portions of the apparatus might be dispensed with, and an oil ap- 

 paratus, in conjunction with the electric, would not be required. 

 The cost of the electric light would then, most probably, be 

 less than that of the ordinary oil light ; while the advantages 

 it would secure would make it greatly preferable to any other 

 light that could be applied to lighthouses. 



THE LOW BAROMETER OF THE ANTARCTIC 

 TEMPERATE ZONE. 



BY RICHARD A. PROCTOR, B.A., F.R.A.S. 



The great difficulty presented by the science of meteorology 

 lies in the intricate combination of causes producing atmo- 

 spheric variations, and the impossibility of determining, by 

 experiment, the relative efficiency even of the most important 

 agents of change. As Sir W. Herschel well observed, we are 

 in the position of a man who hears at intervals a few fragments 

 of a long history narrated in a prosy, unmethodical manner. 

 " A host of circumstances omitted or forgotten, and the want 

 of connection between the parts, prevent the hearer from ob- 

 taining possession of the entire history. Were he allowed to 

 interrupt the narrator, and ask him to explain the apparent 

 contradictions, or to clear up doubts on obscure points, he 

 might hope to arrive at a general view. The questions 

 that we would address to nature, are the very experiments of 

 which we are deprived in the science of meteorology/''* 



It is, therefore, but seldom in the study of this science that 

 we meet with phenomena to which we can assign a definite 



* Kaemtz'a Meteorology. 



