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should simply be gaining early information, without prophesying 
-at all. 
In this connection I may mention, without in any way 
pledging myself to its correctness, an opinion which has 
repeatedly been stated, and of late has been cited by one of the 
ablest scientific men in Australia, that the weather of those 
•colonies appears, as he says, to follow in the wake of European 
weather : that a wet winter here means a wet winter for them 
during our summer. This seems to be rather inexplicable 
unless on the hypothesis that other influences are at work, inde- 
pendently of the earth’s motion in her orbit ; but even then 
there seems to be prima facie no reason for thinking that the 
southern hemisphere should generally follow the northern instead 
of preceding it. 
So much, then, for forecasting weather on a grand scale ; and 
we must say that from one point of view it is fortunate that 
nothing of the kind has yet been attempted. If we were able 
now to furnish any grounds for an estimate of the probable 
yield of the chief corn-producing countries at the coming har- 
vest, the lives of meteorologists would be a burden to them from 
the constant applications to them from corn merchants and 
others as to their prospects of successful speculation. I do not 
for one moment mean to say that it may not be possible, say in 
India, to form highly valuable predictions of the probable cha- 
racter of a coming season, and so to anticipate famine"; but in 
this changeable climate any idea of the kind is utterly Utopian 
in 1877. 
Let us now turn to the subject of what ye ordinarily 
termed weather forecasts, the practical manifestation of which 
is the issue of storm warnings to seamen and farmers. 
When Le Verrier proposed to Sir Gr. Airy an international 
system of storm warnings, he used, in a letter dated April 4, 
1860, the following words : — 
“ Signaler un ouragan des qu’il apparaitra en un point de 
TEurope, le suivre dans sa marche au moyen du telegraphe, et 
informer en temps utile les cotes qu’il pourra visiter, tel devra 
etre le dernier resultat de l’organisation que nous poursuivons.” 
This is a far more modest prospectus than that of the un- 
official weather prophets of the present day, who announce for 
days beforehand the changes which are about to supervene, and 
even in some cases the precise number of hours of fine weather 
which may be expected on the day following their prophecy. 
Admiral Fitz-Eoy also was not content with Le Verrier’s 
programme, but announced his readiness to forecast the weather 
for three days in advance. A signal hoisted by his orders indi- 
cated a probability of a gale occurring within the next three 
days at the actual part where it was hoisted. Accordingly 
