286 
THE TELEGRAPH. 
of gales and of rainy or unsettled weather. As in England, 
the coasts are divided into regions, radiating towards mid- 
France and to the heights of the Alps and the Pyrenees. 
General Nansouty’s celebrated Observatory on the Pic du Midi 
is certainly rendering important services to meteorology and 
weather forecasting, as w T ell as to forewarning of floods. 
The vast extent of America supplies the most varied 
observations ; and there, in the Gulf of Mexico, originate 
those great cyclones that reach our shores. The meteoro¬ 
logical observations made in those regions allow us to calcu¬ 
late, with almost mathematical precision, the date by which 
these cyclones will have crossed the Atlantic, their appear¬ 
ance often agreeing w 7 ith the day foretold by the American 
observers. 
As cyclones have a centre of depression which travels along, 
it is possible to follow the direction of the course; and it is 
precisely this which must be observed if we are to have any 
data for the prediction of the weather. By observing the first 
signs of the arrival of one of these cyclones or whirling move¬ 
ments, and by determining its extent and intensity, the 
distance at which it will pass into the region considered, the 
course it follows, and its speed of transmission, the time at 
which it will arrive at such or such a place may be stated. 
These predictions no doubt sometimes fail to be verified; for 
it is impossible to foresee the many causes of perturbation to 
which the cyclone may be subject in crossing the Atlantic. It 
isbut seldom, however, that the warning of the approach of a 
great cyclone giving rise to violent gales is not justified by 
the event. 
Meteorology is capable also of rendering great services to 
agriculture. “With standing crops,” says M. Marie-Davy, “the 
husbandman has usually to take the weather as it comes ; but at 
the time of tilling and sowing, and especially when the fruits of 
the earth are ready for gathering, it must be of undoubted utility 
for him to have warning of changes of weather, of approach¬ 
ing fine days and wet days, and, above all, of storms coming 
on. But, for these warnings to be effectual, they must reach 
even the hamlets. They should be clear and simple, not 
telling the farmers what they should do, but helping their own 
