HURRICANES IN THE BAY OF NORTH AMERICA. 189 
commanding point in the weather service of the Bay of 
North America. 
Considering, then, what has already been said regarding 
the distance at which a skilled observer can note the pres¬ 
ence and character of an ocean storm, it is interesting to take 
a map and select a certain number of points along the coast 
and from each of these points as a center describe a circle 
with a radius of, say, 300 miles (to be well within the dis¬ 
tance assigned for the easy detection of an approaching 
storm). It will be found that an almost perfect system of 
interlocking circles can be obtained by selecting the following 
fifteen points, all of which, with the exception of Bermuda 
and Nassau, have, already, full telegraphic communication: 
Cape Race, Halifax, Nantucket, Hatteras, Bermuda, Nassau, 
Havana, New Orleans, Brownsville,, Progreso, Kingston, St. 
Thomas, Barbados, Curasao, and Aspinwall. A most im¬ 
portant step toward the establishment of such a service has 
been taken by the formation at Havana of a Marine Meteor- 
ologic Service for the Spanish West Indies, under the direc¬ 
tion of Captain Carbonell, of the Royal Spanish Navy, who 
has already rendered valuable assistance to the Signal Office 
and the Hydrographic Office. He has interested the French, 
Spanish, and American cable companies to such an extent 
that they have allowed him the franking privilege for his 
weather despatches over their lines, and it is hoped that the 
English company will soon grant the same favor, in consid¬ 
eration of the benefits that must result to commerce and to 
the people generally. With the growth and extension of 
this system we may expect to see, within a very few years, a 
great increase in the safety of navigation in the Bay of North 
America and a notable addition to our knowledge of every 
branch of marine meteorology. 
22—Bull. Phil. Soc., Wash., Vol. 11 
