Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1892-11-02

WEATHER STATIONS IN MlDoceAn.


The Prince of Monaco's Plan for Report
ing Weather Conditions at sea
The prince of Monaco is agitating in
faver of the establishment of number
of meteorological observatories in the
Atlantic ocean. He says the obserya-
tions collected by the various weather
bureaus along the ocean border do not
give mariners an idea Of what is going
on far from land. The Atlantic is SO
vast region that we cannot predicate
the weather conditions at its center from
observations made ON its borders. He
says. in substance. that this is a favor
able time for the maritime nations to
utilize good positions in the ocean to col
lect these observations.
The BerInudas, the Azores, the Cana
ries, and the Cape Verde islands are al
ready or shortly will be connected with
the continents by telegraphic cable. 1t
would be sufficient for the present to es-
tablish on some suitable spot in each of
these island groups an observatory pro-
vided with the instruments needed for
noticing the first appearance, nature
and progress of the disturbances that
cannot be followed from the borders of
the ocean. The Cape Verde islands are
of particular interest. because they lie
near the tropic on the parallels where
the most important cyclones are gener-
ated, which. after crossing the Atlantic,
spend their violence ON the British
coasts. Two of these islands are already
in telegraphic communication with Eu-
rope.
Bermuda will also be very useful
point of observation, because it lies al
most on the other extremity of the arc
of the circle along which the north At
lantic cyclones pass. Bermuda is now
in direct telegraphic communication
with North America. Observations are
already made there, but are not tele-
graphed to Europe. The Azores are not
far from the center of the same circle.
A submarine cable to connect the Azores
with Portugal and America will soon be
laid.
Madeira is in the neutral zone between
the trade wind regions and the area of
southwesterly winds farther north. AS
this area shifts with the season this
island belongs sometimes to the one
region and sometimes to the other
Madeira is now connected with Portu-
gal by cable.
The Canaries are in the region where
the trade winds take their rise and pre-
vail most of the year. Three Of these
islands are connected with Europe by
cable. With the exception of Bermuda
all these islands have localities suitable
for high level observatories, which, if
established and kept going for only a
single year, would greatly help to put
the meteorology of the north Atlantic
on sound basis.
The western shores of Europe. espe-
cially those of Great Britain and Ireland.
are exposed to continual devastation by
storms coming from the westward. The
only source from which warning is re-
ceived is from North America, and these
warnings are of considerable value, but
the north Atlantic is so wide that Amer
lean storms often lose themselves in it,
and others are generated of which Eu-
ropeans at present receive no warning.
BY the system of obseryatories on islands
of tho Atlantic the Prince of Monaco
proposes to collect daily information of
the weather conditions throughout the
oceanic basin, and thus Europe and
America can be informed of storms that
are approaching them from midocean,
and the information would be Of great
use to mariners besides being helpful to
the science of meteorology. Meteor
ologists who have expressed themselves
upon the subject think that the ideas
advanced by the prince are entirely
practicable and well worth carrying out.
New York Sun.