435 
WEBBE — THE WEATHER. 
; . * \ t . 
that the late Admiral Fitzroy had recourse to, and the 
answers he received were never false, and rarely ambigu- 
ous. By long-continued observations he had systematised 
the indications presented by those instruments, which, 
coupled with other indications such as those of the force 
and direction of the wind, afforded sufficient data for “ pre- 
casting” the state of the weather a short time in advance.' 
But all such indications are to be considered as valid only 
for a very brief interval of time. The weather-prophet, 
who ventures his predictions on a groat scale, is altogether 
to be disregarded. The sooth-sayers/ in a country with a 
climate like that of England, may hazard their prognos- 
tications with a very probable chance of partial fulfilment. 
If any one were to throw dice to determine what days’ in 
the winter, months in England he might pronounce before- 
hand . would be rainy or stormy, he would probably be 
Tight in at least half the number of his guesses. For it is 
more than an even chance in that climate, that any day 
that might be named from November to February, inclu- 
sive, will be either a wet or a stormy day. All such pre- 
dictions are nothing more than lucky guesses, and no per- 
son in his senses would , arrange or alter his plans fora 
month, or even a week in advance, on the faith of any 
special prediction of a wet or a dry, a calm or a stormy 
, season. The barometer alone is the weather-prophet, on 
whom we may implicitly rely for at least a fow hours ; and 
here we may be permitted to offer a word or two of sug- 
gestion to those who may possess that valuable instrument. 
When we see the surface of the mercury in our barometer 
assume a hollow or cup-like shape, we know it is about to 
descend, and when we perceive the falling of the barometer 
to be very slow and gradual — say one-tenth of an inch in 
twenty-four hours, to bo followed perhaps by another 
