72 



Gogga Brown 



vigil, and trim their lamps to light the mariner 

 on his treacherous way. We are apt to forget 

 that in our meteorological observers we have 

 other watchmen of the day and night, whose 

 services to their country and to their fellow-men 

 are of incalculable value. These are the men 

 who, day in day out, winter and summer, year 

 in year out, take faithful readings of all those 

 elaborate instruments with which the weather is 

 now recorded and forecasted throughout the 

 Union of South Africa. 



For over forty years Brown took daily tempera- 

 tures and barometric readings, measured the 

 rainfall, noted the direction and velocity of the 

 wind, and sent his findings to Headquarters 

 without a single intermission. This unique record 

 is not all. He had a Meteorological Bureau of 

 his own, and between the years 1866 and 1912 

 inclusive he measured every drop of rain that fell 

 in Aliwal North to the second decimal point. He 

 also noted the various shapes of such clouds as 

 changed the sky by day, and he recorded every 

 meteor that he saw speeding through space by 

 night. It is not easy to do justice to such a long 

 story of tireless devotion to duty. I cannot do 

 better than quote the striking tribute to Brown's 

 services paid by the Chief Meteorologist of the 

 Union in a recent letter to me. 



