36 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Jan. 



taken to extend the system to a considerable number of stations 

 throughout Bengal, and we can only hope that such encouragement and 

 aid may be held out, as to render the scheme not only of scientific value, 

 but also of actual utility in warning and preparing the people 

 throughout the province generally, of the approach of such terrible 

 visitations as the cyclones of 1864 and 1867. There can be no doubt 

 that the practical value of such an arrangement was prominently 

 shewn in the case of the late cyclone, where the shipping being duly 

 warned, were enabled to make preparations against the hurricane. 

 Could such warning have been more general, it is impossible to say 

 how much of life and property might not have been preserved. The 

 Committee have recommended to Government that certain stations in 

 the city, the Dockyards or near the river, shall be appointed, where 

 warning and danger signals may be shewn when the approach of a storm 

 is apprehended. Speculation on the past is, however useless, unless 

 it be with the view of profiting for the future — and while we feel regret 

 that comparatively little has yet been clone, we may look forward with 

 hope to a wider and more direct extension of this application of science 

 to practical purposes and ends. In the N. W. and Punjab, paid officers 

 were appointed as meteorological reporters, about the same time 

 as the Committee was appointed in Bengal, and two annual reports 

 have already been published. In Madras, I may observe, a system 

 of meteorological observations is being carried out, which appears 

 worthy of imitation. It is systematic from the commencement, and the 

 whole being placed, from the outset, under one well qualified meteo- 

 rologist, the greatest care is given to the comparison and proper 

 testing of the instruments. The observers are trained to their 

 work, and have it alone to attend to. All stations will be furnished 

 with complete sets of instruments, and no registration will be attemp- 

 ted until these preliminaries are satisfactorily completed. It is the 

 attempt, no doubt unavoidable, to commence with imperfect means, 

 that has rendered much of the work hitherto performed in Bengal, 

 the North West Provinces, and the Punjab of less value than could be 

 desired. The meteorological officers, both of Bengal and the N. W. 

 Provinces are most anxious to give to their own departments, that 

 completeness and uniformity, that constitute the great merit of the 

 Madras system, and to adopt an uniform system of registration in all 



