PREFACE. 



ix: 



utilising these instruments and reducing their indications to numerical values will be 

 found in the Introduction, pp. 5 to 7. The Observatory is also provided with the usual 

 outfit of an ordinary station : namely, barometer ; maximum, minimum, and dry and wet 

 bulb thermometers in a Stevenson screen ; solar and terrestrial radiation thermometers,, 

 and a rain gauge. The Fort-William Observatory thus not only supplies the low-level 

 data necessary for the utilisation of the records of the Ben Nevis Observatory either 

 for scientific study or for weather forecasting, but is also one of the " first-class '" 

 Observatories of the Meteorological Council, and an ordinary station of the Scottish 

 Meteorological Society. 



The two Observatories are conducted by a Board of Directors, which consists of the 



Fig. 6. — the instrument stand at ben nevis observatory. 



Council of the Scottish Meteorological Society, with one representative from the Royal 

 Society of London, two from the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and one from the Royal 

 Philosophical Society of Glasgow. A list of the present members of the Board and 

 of the Staff of the Observatories will be found on p. xi. The Staff is appointed to both 

 Observatories, and the members serve on Ben Nevis and at Fort- William by turns,, 

 thus providing them with a change from the arduous work of observing on Ben 

 Nevis, and also securing a homogeneity in the double observational record that could 

 not otherwise be obtained. 



In the first volume of observations a summary was given of several discussions of the 

 results deduced from them. Since that volume was published, some of these researches 



