passion. If she bursts into uncontrollable fury, say at Dublin, or Valentia, or Yarmouth, the information reaches the office, and is despatched broadcast to all whom it may concern. Both calm and storm are registered with extreme care.
Marking Admiralty binoculars, Kew.
The Meteorological Office is divided into three chief departments—(1) The marine, to which go all observations connected with the sea; (2) the land, which deals with the weather on land; and (3) the telegraphic, which concerns itself with the messages sent over the wires daily, and published as soon after they are received as practicable. The observations made are telegraphed at first in brief to the central office, and subsequently are forwarded in detail. When any message arrives, it is entered in a book full of symbols unintelligible to the outsider, and is then transferred to a map, all changes which have occurred since the last report being studied minutely. Charts are then prepared for distribution, showing the direction and force or the wind, the barometrical pressure, the temperature, and the atmospheric conditions generally. The comprehensive idea which the Office thus acquires of what Nature is doing over a considerable portion of the earth's surface, enables it to accomplish two useful pieces of work—to forecast the weather for the next twenty-four hours, and, if necessary, to warn particular localities to look out for squalls. Each London newspaper, and many provincial ones, are supplied with the information, whilst the reports are despatched to 400 different people anxious to have the earliest weather intelligence daily. Some people are disposed to laugh at the forecasts made, but in the main they are very trustworthy.
Rain gauges and solar thermometers, Kew.
It is never possible to be quite sure what will happen at any one spot, but over a district the readings of the barometer afford the practised meteorologist a fairly accurate idea of what is coming, and it is worthy of note that the failures, or partial failures, in the prophecies during a year are considerably less than 20 per cent. On the coast the prognostications of the Meteorological Office have been of immense service. When a storm is approaching, the port or station receives an intimation to that effect, and many a fisherman and excursionist
