1876.] Report of the Meteorological Committee. 203 



utilized by us. They cannot be reduced to rule, and they depend 

 almost entirely on personal experience. It is impossible in a 

 telegram to convey the entire line of reasoning which leads one, in 

 the absence of instruments, to know that a storm is impending. 

 The character, elevation, and motion of ^clouds, the colour of the 

 sky, the clearness or the contrary of the air, the appearance of 

 the aurora, and numerous other signs are well known to every 

 one who studies weather ; and from these helps the cabinet me- 

 teorologist is entirely debarred. He is like a physician dealing 

 with a case by correspondence, without the chance of a personal 

 interview with his patient ; for what can a resident in an inland 

 town like London, on any given day, know of the look of the 

 weather on the sea-coast on the same day. 



" If, in conclusion, I were asked how our weather service could be 

 most directly improved, on the supposition that larger means were avail- 

 able for its prosecution, I should say, — 



" A. The supply of cheap self-recording instruments to our principal 

 stations, so that the reporters should be able to furnish intelli- 

 gence as to the changes which have taken place immediately pre- 

 vious to the epoch for which the report is framed. 



" The erection at a number of well-exposed outlying stations of 

 the automatic signalling-anemometers described in the Keporb of 

 the British Association for 1874, p. 37, in order to warn the 

 nearest telegraphic stations of the fact that the wind has reached 

 a given velocity, say 30 miles an hour. "Want of funds has 

 hitherto prevented the carrying out of this plan. 



" B. Additional stations at well-selected points on our west coast, as 

 at Mullaghmore, on Donegal Bay, and at high levels, as at Settle, 

 in Yorkshire. 



"The former especially to give more accurate indications of wind, 

 which from our present stations is often necessarily incorrect, 

 owing to the precipitous character of our western coasts, which 

 affects the direction and force of the wind. The latter to furnish 

 means for a study of the differences of atmospherical conditions in 

 a vertical direction, which has yielded very valuable results when- 

 ever it has been prosecuted. 



"C. Additional reports daily. This is a most pressing want ; it has 

 been partially met by the enterprise of the public press, the 

 * Times ' having begun (Jan. 1876) to bear the expense of an 

 evening message from some stations. 



" D. Improved accuracy in transmission of the reports. This is, I 

 fear, hopeless! 



" E. Extension of the area covered by our reports. This raises the 

 question of international exchanges ; and in this particular it must 

 be remembered that stations are not of equal value, for a report 



