i9ii] ON THE METEOROLOGICAL INSTRUMENTS 299 
clearer than I ever remember to have seen it, the con- 
stellations brilliant, and the Milky Way like a bright 
auroral streamer. 
The wind has continued all day, making it unpleasant 
out of doors. I went for a walk over the land ; it was 
dark, the rock very black, very little snow lying ; old 
footprints in the soft, sandy soil were filled with snow, 
showing quite white on a black ground. Have been 
digging away at food statistics. 
Simpson has just given us a discourse, in the ordin- 
ary lectures series, on his instruments. Having 
already described these instruments, there is little 
to comment upon ; he is excellently lucid in his 
explanations. 
As an analogy to the attempt to make a scientific 
observation when the condition under consideration is 
affected by the means employed, he rather quaintly cited 
the impossibility of discovering the length of trousers by 
bending over to see ! 
The following are the instruments described : 
Features 
The outside (bimetallic) 
thermograph. 
The inside thermograph 
(alcohol) 
The electrically recording 
anemometer 
The Dynes anemometer 
The recording wind vane . 
Alcohol in spiral, small lead 
pipe — float vessel. 
Cam device with contact on 
wheel ; slowing arrange- 
ment, inertia of wheel. 
Parabola on immersed float. 
Metallic pen. 
