secure and less liable to mistakes, as well as to such uncertain delays as occurred so often formerly.

The great advantages of making a quick passage are admitted, in a general way, no doubt, but we do not always realize to ourselves the shipowner's, the merchant's, or even the public interest in the question. If a frigate, with important despatches, is some days later in arriving at her destination than might be the case, the possible consequences may be disastrous, but the expense is not thought of because it does not affect individuals, and because the ship is maintained in continuous service for a considerable period, probably some years; but for every day that a merchant ship is delayed beyond the expected or an average time of passage, not only do passengers suffer more or less inconvenience, affecting health, it may be, if not life itself, but the merchant loses and the shipowner loses. The expense of pay, provisions, and wear and tear of a large ship full of cargo and passengers, is from 50l. to 100l. daily; besides which direct expense, there is the diminution of that ship's annual earnings, by the delay unnecessarily caused before she can commence another voyage. Thus the injurious effects of a long passage are compound, and though well known to the owners of clipper ships are not so clearly recognised by the public at large.

In the United States the Superintendent of the National Observatory, the celebrated Maury, has continued his labours indefatigably, as evidenced by new charts, valued books, and useful correspondence. In Holland the Meteorological Institute has published three volumes of nautical information, extracted from Dutch logs in the Indian seas as well as the Atlantic Ocean. In those volumes is also given a conversion of Maury's Pilot charts, reduced to a small scale, for every month, on a plan analogous to that of the Board of Trade. And at the Mauritius a volume has been published which is valuable for the Indian Ocean, especially to seamen. The materials for it were commenced by the zealous and much lamented meteorologist, Dr. Thom. In the United States, the medical department of the army takes charge of meteorology on land, where their stations are numerous and widely scattered. In their navy the captains are responsible (as in our own service), but one may express a hope, perhaps, that medical officers at sea may be willingly enlisted among efficient co-operators, if encouraged by the authorities. Unless some person is specially interested in the subject on board each ship, one cannot expect due consistency of observation, or such a degree of correctness as might be ensured by one person's even occasional supervision, in addition to that of the captain, who on board a ship of war has the superintendence of everything, in a general way.

The Report contains much important information on meteorology (more especially in a letter from the Royal Society), the barometer, dry air and aqueous vapour, temperature of the air, temperature of the sea, and investigations regarding currents, storms or gales, charts, &c. The Report is signed by Capt. Fitzroy, R.N., &c.

No. CV.-METEOROLOGICAL DEPARTMENT.

Report of the Meteorological Department of the Board of Trade.

A SERIES of meteorological papers was commenced in 1857, of which the second number is now in the press. It is proposed to continue these papers as frequently as material for them can be duly prepared. There is no deficiency of facts, useful to navigators, and interesting to science; but time, pains, and expense are, of course, indispensable for due publication of even such data as are already collected. Numerous scientific journals and registers kept on board her Majesty's surveying and exploring ships contain information in manuscript well worth circulating among those to whom it is of value. Scarcely a log-book has been examined in this office, in which remarkable occurrences have not been noted for extracting, with a view to publication in connection with subjects of the same class or character. Some of the meteorological logs contain notices of remarkable atmospheric changes, cyclones, or other storms, which should be traced and exhibited graphically. Such records are rendered interesting as well as valuable, independently of statistical details, by remarks which resemble the writings of Dampier, and our earlier as well as some of the best later navigators. It would indeed be ill-judged economy to consign such observations to the shelf, instead of placing them speedily within the reach of inexperienced men, just commencing their sea responsibilities.

Better wind and current charts, for all parts of the world, for each month in the year, and for considerably smaller spaces of ocean, are much required. Registers of wind kept only on shore, near the sea, can hardly be relied on like those of ships on the ocean, because land affects wind much, as is seen in land and sea breezes, and the frequent evening or night calms in a port, or on shore, while a steady breeze prevails. The experience of those captains who command clipper ships, and make extraordinary passages, is too valuable to be allowed to pass unrecorded. Such part of it as can be secured by ink and paper is so much gained for their successors; therefore, on this and other accounts, tables of passages for all parts of the world, alphabetically arranged, with concise directions, are required; steamers, and ships only sailing, having separate sets of numbers. Such tables are nearly completed, and probably each house connected with shipping, as well as many Government departments, will find them useful. During the last year much additional information has been collected from various seas, and from many foreign stations on land. From the Pacific as well as from the Atlantic Ocean, from India, and China, a considerable amount of reliable observations has been received. From more than six hundred selected ships in the mercantile marine, and many men-of-war, so large a supply of materials has been already obtained, or is in progress (besides what has been received from other sources), that the discussion and publication of results is now the principal object of anxiety, while continuing a diminished yearly collection. These results, it may be mentioned, being derived from good instruments carefully used, and duly compared, should have a permanent value. All our ships of war have now means of making good observations, and although their special duties interfere much with the regular record of them that is desirable, all that are recorded, even in ordinary log-books, are now valuable.

Since the establishment of this office, very large numbers of tested

instruments (hundreds of barometers, and thousands of thermometers and hydrometers,) have been sent afloat: of which many have been returned, re-compared, and re-issued. Detailed and exact accounts of all such changes, and comparisons kept regularly, enable the story and employment of every instrument to be recorded with careful accuracy. During the first two years (1855-57), a series of wind charts (based on the numerical data published by Maury), that was completed and circulated in the navy and mercantile marine, occupied much time; but while these charts were in progress, and since then, the tabulation and reduction of various observations, extracted from the logs and other documents above mentioned, have been proceeded with, as far as time has permitted.

Wind and weather; pressure and temperature of the air, its humidity and other characteristics; specific gravity of the ocean, its temperature and currents; and magnetism-have filled many manuscript books; and all are so recorded as to be traceable, in each case, to the original observation. Not one entry in an original document has been diminished in value by transposition and collection with others. Records of storms, and all special facts of value connected with them; instances of ice met with at sea; notices of "vigia" or unusual appearances of aurora, electricity, meteors, and other phenomena, are carefully extracted from the original documents, and grouped in books appropriated to each subject separately, reference being always available to the original source. True it is that this method of record entails an amount of time and pains slightly discouraging, and of which the importance is not evident at first sight. From the reflection, however, that all these records are for the public, and for future as well as present reference-that some inquirers seek for special detailssingle observations only (it may be)-while others ask for mean results; the propriety of preserving all details appears to be indisputable. There is another reason for this arrangement-perhaps a stronger one-which is, the publication of these data. To print logs, or other similar original registers, is impracticable, as a general arrangement. Such records are too bulky, too numerous, for publication, which, moreover, after their contents are properly extracted, becomes unnecessary, all the logs being kept for reference in the office. But the printing and circulation of reduced and tabulated results, groups of observations, and individual facts of value, is expected, and may be accomplished satisfactorily.

Such observations being more available if published in considerable numbers, rather than by fragments (which, like those of divided articles in some periodicals, would have an unsatisfactory character), a large number of observations of winds and currents are being collected for a new, and more reliable, as well as more detailed series of wind and current charts of the oceans. By very numerous trials, the specific gravity of nearly all the oceanic surface has been ascertained, and it is believed that these results will render further observations of the kind unnecessary, except in peculiar and limited localities, for some special object; the general result being now demonstrated that, except in confined localities, such as the Red Sea (where it is said 1080 has been recorded), or the Indian Archipelago, there is little or no variation in the weight or saltness of the ocean water where unaffected by recent heavy rains, or the vicinity of very large rivers. Distilled water being taken as 1,000, the specific gravity of oceanic water is found to be nearly 1,027. The lowest temperature hitherto recorded, between 2.300 and 2.500 fathoms below the surface, has been 35° (in the North Atlantic,

South Atlantic, and Indian Oceans), and 86° the highest temperature, anywhere at sea, on the surface. After reducing and tabulating a great number of barometrical observations, it appears that within certain limits of latitude, near the equator (or rather at about five degrees of north latitude in the Atlantic Ocean), the total pressure on the barometer varies so little throughout the year, that (allowing for the six-hourly change) any ship crossing that part of the sea may actually compare her barometer with a natural standard, invariable within known small limits of two or three hundredths of an inch.

Possibly when these observations are still farther investigated, and the pressures of dry air compared together, a closer agreement may be discovered; but as the temperatures and hygrometric indications are strikingly uniform there, much difference in ultimate results is not now anticipated. Besides this incidental value of a mass of barometrical observations, the accurate determination of pressures and temperatures, as well as hygrometrical properties, should be mentioned, by which the respective zones of high and low barometer, the greater or less amount of aqueous vapour, the movements of atmospheric waves, and those general laws of the atmosphere which are yet to be verified, will be further elucidated. The reductions of an immense mass of hygrometric observations must be a work of time. It is steadily, though slowly, proceeding. Magnetism has not occupied much thought, because it is attended to zealously in other Government departments; but all observations obtained are tabulated for future use. ever, the Report of the Liverpool Compass Committee and three Pamphlets on the Deviation of the Compass were more or less attended to in printing and otherwise in this department of the Board of Trade, whence, indeed, and by the Admiralty, they were stimulated originally. Either of the above subjects actively followed up requires much thought, as well as work of hand, and involves a great amount of monotonous occupation in making gradual progress towards ultimate results.

How

While these chief branches of public duty have been our regular employment in this office, other ramifications have been cultivated at times; and to the Report of 1857 reference is again necessary here to show why the following matters have been subjects of anxious attention. They are almost completed, and are now in course of publication.

First. A passage table to show the length of passages between any frequented seaports (by steamers as well as by sailing ships), and giving the least possible distance that must be traversed between them. This table, arranged in alphabetical order, and accompanied by sailing directions, of a brief and generalized character, may be found, it is hoped, a useful work of reference, especially if corrected periodically, so as to be kept up to the requirements of future years.

Second. Concise and ready methods of applying the principles of great circle sailing in practice, for the use of officers afloat, concerned in passages. Third. A manual of instructions for the use of barometers and thermometers as weather-glasses, in two forms, one for fishermen and coasters, the other for young officers at sea.

Fourth. A translation of a Dutch pamphlet on the Herring Fishery, which shows that herrings seek such parts of the North Sea as are not colder than 54° or warmer than 58°, and tends to show the comparative inutility of casting nets for them where the surface water is not between these limits of temperature.

And fifth. A translation (with conversion of foreign quantities), of Dove's last work on "Winds," recently published in Germany.

Much interest having been created by successive developments of the laws of storms, winds, and general circulation of the atmosphere, the Royal Society and British Association requested Government to institute a series of regular and continuous observations at specific points on the Atlantic.

Three anemometers (Osler's Self-registering, with Robinson's cups) are nearly completed, which are intended for Bermuda, Halifax, and another place (not yet decided).

In connexion with this interesting subject, a series of atmospheric wind charts is in progress here, intended to exhibit the simultaneous states of atmosphere over the British Islands and adjacent seas, especially the direction of wind current, and its strength at certain times (9 A.M. and 3 P.M.), rain also, and fog, during six consecutive months (October 1856 to March 1857 inclusive).

Among the results already obtained from these charts (which eventually may exceed three hundred in number) is the true north and south or meridional direction of certain atmospheric wave lines-(those of the troughs as well as those of the crests) the diminution of the wind's strength, or force, over land; and evidence of a continuous alternation, or opposition of the great polar and equatorial currents of the atmosphere.

The Board of Trade having sanctioned (by way of experiment) some assistance being given by Government to enable poor fishermen, and those employed on the more exposed shores of our islands (when unable to afford the expense themselves) to benefit by the use of weather glasses; steps have been taken towards carrying it into practice. Ten substantial barometers, strongly made, durable, and easy to observe, are already located as experimental loans at the undermentioned places; and with them, many copies of plain directions for their use have been distributed.

The Scotch Fishery Board has aided, in this matter, materially. In their Eastern district (only, as yet) a selection has been made, by the Board of Trade, of the following fishing stations :-Newhaven, Anstruther, Arbroath, Rosehearty, Whitehills, Port Easy (or Portessie), Lybster, Dunbeath, and Lerwick.

In the West of England the most exposed places are in Cornwall. A barometer is placed, therefore, near St. Ives, and one will be in Mount's Bay, as being the greatest resorts of fishermen in that neighbourhood.

Such assistance is urgently needed on the north-west coasts of Ireland and Scotland, in the Shetland Isles, and on the East coast of England.

Disaster and loss of life among the fishing population of those placesespecially Lerwick, Banffshire, and Innishowen-have been narrated in public prints. Many of these calamities might have been avoided by the judicious use of weather glasses.

The addition made by Lord Stanley of Alderley to the space and staff of this Office has enabled us to work more effectively; and though I earnestly desire to apply more strength of head and hands to the reduction and discussion of observations (while rather diminishing their annual collection), and though assured that money would be preferably employed in this direction, I am thankful for the means now available, and have cause to speak much in favour of the support given by my assistants.

P.S.-In America, the originator of national co-operation for the collection and publication of useful maritime knowledge-the celebrated Maury