While making a few observations on this important subject, we seize the opportunity of republishing recent re- marks of Mr. Scott, the able and scientific chief of the London Weather Office.

He says:—" The system of forecasting is carried on with a good measure of suc- cess. The United Kingdom is divided into eleven districts, and a forecast is drawn for each of these twice a day.

"The results of the first year's fore- casting, ending with April, 1880, as estimated by the Meteorological Office, have yielded above 25 per cent, of un- qualified successes. In addition, one half of the entire number of predictions were so nearly correct as to justify their being classed as successful, while 25 per cent, of the whole appear as misses, 5 per cent, being utterly astray. The proportion, over the different districts of the United Kingdom, was pretty nearly uniform, the extreme variations being, on the one hand, a total success of 83 per cent, in the South of England, and, on the other, of 68 per cent, in the West of Scotland.

Such a difference is but natural, for as London is in the south-east corner of the kingdom, it is most distant from the extreme north and north-west stations, so that the task of predicting the weather for such localities is most difficult.