SOME REMARKS ON 
199 
land and sea breezes, and many other well- ascertained phenomena. 
But what about weather predictions generally ? Since the time 
mentioned, the Meteorological Office at London has instituted a 
system of daily forecasts based upon information of wind, 
atmospheric pressure, etc., telegraphed from stations all over the 
country, and the authorities are enabled by generalizing upon this 
knowledge to form a supposition as to the direction and velocity 
of the wind for a limited period in advance — but more than this 
appears at present quite impossible. To take, for instance, the 
memorable storm of October 14th, The Times forecast for the 
day gave “ veering winds and gales,'’ and for one part of 
England heavy gales,” but as the Daily News, discussing the 
scientific aspect of the storm, puts it, the authorities of the 
Office were scarcely prepared for the spectacle which awaited 
them on Friday morning. And the loss of life to the fishermen 
on the Berwick coast may surely be quoted as showing that 
there is yet much that is unknown as to the precise action of 
the wind. American storm predictions are conjectured by one 
of the lecturers in a course delivered under the auspices of the 
Meteorological Society^ to be merely a question, first, of 
collecting the facts as to the direction of a storm over there, and 
then, of course, the length of warning given is a matter of the 
difference in speed of the storm from that of an electric message. 
But though often proving correct, the prediction has on several 
occasions proved otherwise, and either . the storm has been 
dispersed on the road, or been lost altogether. Take the storm 
which was, according to the New York Herald, “ of dangerous 
energy, crossing north of latitude 40, arriving on British coast 
between 30th inst. and Nov. 1st.” The wind rose, it is true, on 
the 31st, but it could not by any means be called a storm of 
dangerous energy. 
I Lectures on Modern Meteorology, p. 95. 
