172 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
February 19, a prediction which was amply fulfilled, but not at 
all in the way at first anticipated by those who read the tele- 
gram here, for the gale was from the northward, while the 
wording of the message would have led us to anticipate a 
southerly gale. 
Since that date several other telegrams have been received 
which have, for the most part, met with fulfilment in a greater 
or less degree, but have all possessed the same capital defect 
for practical purposes, that they have been too vague as to 
date, and have given no hints as to the direction whence the 
gale would blow. 
Both of these are most important particulars ; as to the 
direction of the gale, a doubt on this head may make all the 
difference in deciding whether or not such an anchorage will be 
safe ; as regards precise time, a warning hoisted too soon may 
make a coaster miss his chance of a short run, or cause a fisher- 
man to lose his night’s earning. In either case the system 
falls into discredit, and the warning is disregarded when next 
hoisted ; “Wolf! wolf! ” having been cried too often. 
The non-seafaring public have very little notion of the dif- 
ferent lights in which warnings are regarded in seaport towns 
and among ordinary landsmen. In some ports which could be 
named the system is not in operation because the authorities 
think the signals would frighten the fishermen. At one place 
the flymen of the town succeeded in putting down the warning 
system, because none of the visitors would take a drive while 
the signal was flying ; and lastly, at all places the interest of 
the shipowner, and to some extent of the captain, is against the 
warnings, for the fact of the exhibition of the signal is sufficient 
to make the sailor plead stress of weather, and betake himself 
to the public-house bar. 
It appears therefore that it is not a simple question of 
announcing to every port in the kingdom the weather which is 
coming; but yet, through evil report and good report, the 
system established by Admiral Fitzroy has made good its foot- 
ing, and is steadily growing in popularity and usefulness. 
We have mentioned warnings for agricultural purposes, but 
our space will not allow of our treating this question at any 
length. They are in full operation in the United States, but 
there the area covered by the telegraphic system is so much 
larger than in Western Europe — irrespective of the fact of the 
system being military, and provided on a most liberal scale 
with funds — that the results attainable there furnish no pre- 
cedent for us. 
Warnings of this nature were organized in France last year, 
but we have not as yet seen any results of the system. The 
great difficulty here is to insure that the message comes to the 
