of our rains in evaporation from the South Pacific Ocean, and concerning the northeast-southwest course of the return polar current at great altitudes, still find recent advocacy by those who would persuade us that cannonading will cause rainfall.
The meteorology of to-day is another science from that of those earlier decades. The store of facts has increased wonderfully, both from the observations made at sea, in good part as a result of the incentive given by Maury, and from the establishment of weather services in many countries following the suggestions of Espy, Henry, Leverrier, and others. The hydrographic offices of various governments have charted the winds of the oceans; Buchan has determined the distribution of barometric pressure over the world, Loomis has discussed more fully than any one else the features of the cyclonic storms whose action is so well indicated on the weather maps.
But from whom has the finer spirit of understanding of all these facts been received? From whom have we now gained an insight into the wonderful correlations that exist among the varied motions of the atmosphere? We would not belittle the ingenious theories of Espy, to whom greater honor is given with the passing years; we would not forget the many contributions made by earnest students at home and abroad; but the fuller appreciation of the system of the winds, both great and small, both in the full sweep of the terrestrial circulation and in the constricted whirl of the tornado, comes from one man—a man lately described by the leading meteorologist of Europe as one "who had contributed more to the advance of the physics of the atmosphere than any other living physicist or meteorologist—a man of whom Americans are justly proud."[1] Alas that this man is no longer living, and that so few Americans know how proud they may be for having had him for a countryman!
William Ferrel died on September 18, 1891, at May wood, Kansas, in his seventy-fifth year. The first half of his life was a struggle against adverse circumstances in uncongenial surroundings. His later years saw him on the staff of the Nautical Almanac, in charge of tidal computations in the Coast Survey, Professor of Meteorology in the Signal Service, member of the National Academy of Sciences, and our recognized leader in scientific meteorology. Let those of us whose paths of life have been opened by the labors of our fathers marvel at the innate powers of such a man as this, who made his own way through heavy discouragements.
Ferrel was born in Bedford (now Fulton) County, Pa., on Jan-
- ↑ Dr. Julius Hann, Director of the Austrian Meteorological Observatory, in the Proceedings of the Vienna Academy of Sciences, April 9, 1891.
