PREFACE. 



The two parts of this Volume of the Transactions contain the observations at the 

 Ben Nevis and Fort-William Observatories from January 1898 to the time the Observ- 

 atories were closed at the end of September 1904. An account of their closure and a 

 statement of the reasons which rendered it necessary will be found in Volumes XII. 

 and XIII. of the Journal of the Scottish Meteorological Society. Hourly observa- 

 tions began at Ben Nevis on 1st December 1883, and at Fort- William on 1st August 1890. 

 The former thus cover a period of nearly twenty-one years, and the latter of over four- 

 teen years; from 1st December 1883 to 31st July 1890 readings were taken five 

 times a day at Fort- William. The whole of these observations are now published 

 in Volumes XXXVI, XLIL, XLIIL, and XLIV. of the Transactions of the Royal 

 Society of Edinburgh. In each of the four volumes there will be found, besides the 

 observations, papers by various authors discussing some of the results deduced from 

 the observations. 



In printing these volumes the Eoyal Society of Edinburgh has expended over £1000 

 out of its own funds, as well as the following grants given for the publication of the Ben 

 Nevis records by other bodies, namely: — 



om the Eoyal Society, London, 



£550 



„ the Carnegie Trust, . 



100 



,, the British Association, 



25 



,, Private Donors, 



57 



Total, . 



. £732 



The publication of the observations and of the papers discussing them has thus cost in 

 all about £1800. 



The volume previous to this — Vol. XLIIL — contains a paper by the late 

 Dr Alexander Buchan, which was intended to be the first part of an elaborate 

 general examination of the observations, but his death in May 1907 has prevented 

 this general discussion from being carried further at present. Dr Buchan had spent 

 much time and thought on a preliminary arrangement and comparison of the data from 

 the two Observatories, and the paper outlines the manner in which he proposed to 

 attack the problem of the utilisation of the double record for scientific and practical 



