various applications op telegraphy. 287 
experience of weather signs, and giving more reliability to their 
judgment by enlarging its bases; and the warnings should, 
moreover, be sufficiently in advance for those interested either 
to take precautions, or to select the most favourable period 
for undertaking operations that occupy some considerable 
time.” 
Other Applications of the Telegraph .—It would be vain to 
attempt to enumerate the resources which the use of the 
telegraph affords in numberless cases. We may, however, 
mention the value of the telegraph in cases of sudden and 
unusual floods in rivers. Great disasters may be prevented if 
the places down the stream receive timely warning. This 
service is now well organized in France. A hydromatic com¬ 
mission forms part of this service for all the great rivers of 
France. The overflow of the Seine in 1876 proved the value 
of this organization, by the services rendered by the commis¬ 
sioners under M. Belgrand. The Observatory on the Pic du 
Midi foretold, several days beforehand, the overflow of the 
Garonne in 1875. 
The localities of the great herring and cod fisheries are well 
known; but when the fish come to deposit their spawn, great 
shoals disappear into the bays, and then the fish again take to 
the open sea. In Norway, herring fishing is perfectly orga¬ 
nized by giving signals of the approach of the shoals. The 
neighbouring fishing-stations are connected by submarine 
cables, and intimations of the appearance of the shoals of 
herring in any particular fiord are sent to the fishing 
villages. 
The police daily make use of the telegraph for tracing and 
arresting criminals. Count du Moncel states that lately it 
has been suggested that the autographic telegraph should be 
employed in reproducing portraits of such persons at a 
distance. Experiments were made with this object by 
M. D’Arlincourt in 1876 and 1877 at the chief police-office 
at Paris. It appears that the results were considered very 
satisfactory, and it is strange that this interesting application 
of telegraphy has not come into use; for a very ingenious 
class of telegraphic apparatus has already been devised, which 
would further the ends of justice. 
