The Express.
London, England, 1849-03-17 00:00:00

It had teen with regret that we disguised the idea
ei continuing our repeat., and this appli.stion sti-
mulated us to a more determined attempt to obviate
the difficulties which entreated its realisation.
We opened without loss of time communica-
tions on the subject with the directors of the leading
railway companies, and were gratified by meeting
with prompt and liberal expressions°, a desire to pro-
mote our viewsfroin the directors of the Great Northern,
the Great Western, the South Western, the South
Eastern, the South Coast, the Lancaster and Carlisle,
and the York Newcastle and Berwick Railways. We
mention the names of those companies from whom we
have received the first promise of co-oyeration, in
part as an expression o our gratitude. in part es a
tribute doe to the promptitude of their compliance,
indicative at once of a liberal wish to concur
in operations of general utility, and a high-
minded appreciation of the importance of scientific
investigation& We have no doubt that equal
liberality and intelligencewill be found to animate
their railway cotempoearies when they find time to
soonest- the resources they have in their power to aid
us; and even should we be mistaken on this point, the
examples we have noticed may stimulate emulation.
Encouraged by the response we have met with we
have resolved to commence operations on as extensive a
male as is actually in cur power, hoping with to be able to expand and complete them. Our
arrangements are so far advanced that we look for-
ward with confidence to be able in the course of a
month to begin the publication of daily meteorologi-
cal reports from the following places :
Reading, Swindon. Oxford, Bristol, Bridgewater,
Faster, Plymooth, Leighton, Rugby, Birmingham,
Tamworth, (lows, Liverpool, Manchester, Lancaster,
'hap, Corlisis, Moffat, Lanark, Edinburgh, Glasgow,
Peterborough, York, Leeds, Whitby, Darlington,
Hartlepool, Newcastle, Sunderland, Berwick, Basing.
stoke, Soathamptoo, Portsmouth, Hutings, Brighton,
Poole, Tunbridge, Folkestone. To these we shall hope
to be able to add—Gloucester, Conway, Holyhead,
Kingston, Limerick, Galway, Dundee, Blackburn,
Rochdale Halifax, Sheffield, Colchester, Cambridge,
Yarmouth, Lynn.
In selecting these places, we have been decided by
various considerations, in some measure sug-
gested by the Astronomer Royal, by whom also
the choice of individual stalk= has been
partly made. In the first plasm, it was of con-
sequence that the extreme stations should be as far
apart as possible. In plain countries it was not neces-
sary to take places near each other, for there the
variation from place to place is small. But where
high hills intervene, it was obviously desirable to
approximate the stations as closely as possible, and to
have them on both sides, as well as at different eleva-
tions, and wherever a point was marked by peculiar
features. Sea-ports are, in general, eligible stations,
because in them the inhabitants are accustomed to
take notes of the weather, particularly of the direc-
tion of the wind: and so are railway stations on
account of their proximity to the lines of electric tele-
graph. Of course the extent of the field over which
the obtaining of simultaneous observations is practi-
cable is limited by the extent to which the develop-
ment of the railway and telegraph system has attained.
It appears of consequence to bestow a few words
on the arrangemeats we have adopted with a view to
ensure the: accuracy and regularity of our reports.
To every station where co-operation has been promised
us, a wind-card has been, or will be, forwarded. The
superintendent of the magnetic and meteorological de-
partment at Greenwich will, if possible, 'lilt all the sta-
tions to examine the apparatuss of wind-vanes which
they possess, to furnish suggestions respecting their
management, and to assist in fixing the bearing
points. Forms to be filled up with the information
required will be supplied to the parties at the stations
entrusted with the making of the observations. We
subjoin a copy of these forms as the most laconic way
of stating the information we propose to give :