196 Instructions for Making and Registering [Jan. 



4. — Instructions for Making and Registering Meteorological Observa- 

 tions at various Stations in Southern Africa and other Countries in 

 the South Seas, as also at Sea* 



The great importance of possessing an exact and carefully registered 

 account of the variations of the barometer, thermometer, and other 

 meteorological instruments, and of the winds and weather throughout 

 that extensive region of the Southern Hemisphere, which is either in- 

 cluded within the boundaries of this colony, or readily accessible from 

 it, has determined the South African Literary and Philosophical Insti- 

 tution to request the assistance of its correspondents, and of all who 

 may have leisure and inclination for observations of the kind, towards 

 the gradual accumulation of a continued and extensive series of me- 

 teorological Journals, and towards carrying into effect a concerted plan 

 of contemporaneous observations, on stated days, from which it is con- 

 ceived that much advantage will be derived. The institution therefore 

 solicits the attention of its correspondents, and of the lovers of know- 

 ledge generally, to this object; and earnestly requests their co-opera- 

 tion in making, arranging, and forwarding to its secretary, resident in 

 Cape Town, observations of the nature; and, so far as practicable, 

 according to the plan of those hereafter detailed. Such observations 

 alone can furnish the materials necessary for an accurate and scientific 

 inquiry into the laws of climate, regarded as an object of local interest, 

 and are the only data through which (taken in conjunction with the 

 known laws of physics), the more general relations of meteorology 

 can be successfully investigated. 



It can scarcely be necessary to insist on the practical importance of 

 this science to the agriculturist, to the navigator, and indeed in every 

 branch of human affairs, or to dilate on the benefits which must accrue 

 to mankind in general, from any successful attempts to subject to rea- 

 sonable and well-grounded prediction the irregular and seemingly 

 capricious course of the seasons and the winds ; or on the advantages, 

 purely scientific, which must arise from a systematic development of 

 laws exemplified on the great scale in the periodical changes of the 

 atmosphere, depending, as they do, on the agency of all the most influ- 



* These instructions are understood to have been drawn up by Sir John Herschel, for 

 the Meteorological Committee of the South African Literary and Philosophical Instituti- 

 on ; and have been very generally re-printed in Scientific Journals in all parts of the 

 world ; and their excellence merits the distinction. 



In a letter with which we have- been favoured from Sir John Herschel, that distin- 

 guished philosopher writes: " The hourly meteorological observations at the solstices 

 and equinoxes, of which you have no doubt seen accounts, continue to be made here, and 

 at a very great number of other stations in every quarter of the globe— a series from Ma- 

 dras would be most highly appreciated." 



It will be observed that this suggestion has been anticipated ; and we hope to have a 

 series of these observations from our excellent and indefatigable Astronomer, for as long 

 a period as may be required.— Editor Madras Journal. 



