"The eastern outlying edge of a N. E. storm, approaching from the W. S. W. It is now raining from 150 to 200 miles to the westward of the eastern extremity of those bars of cirrus-condensation; perhaps more, perhaps less; and under those bars of condensation the wind is attracted, and is blowing from the N. E. toward the body of the storm, and where the condensation is sufficiently dense to drop rain. That dense portion will reach here, and it will rain from twelve to fifteen hours hence. As we pass along the shore, and run under that out-lying advance cirrus-condensation, we shall see that the vessels in the Sound have the wind from the N. E., freshening, but we shall continue to have this light and scarcely-perceptible air from the northward for a time--_the N. E. wind always setting in toward an approaching storm, out on the Sound, much sooner than upon the land_." As we approached the storm, and the storm us, the evidence of denser condensation at the west, and of wind from the east, blowing toward it, became more apparent. The fore and aft vessels were running "up Sound" with "sheet out and boom off," before a fresh N. E. breeze, and my friend was astonished. "I must understand this," said he; "how is it?" "All very simple. The page of nature spread out above us is intelligible to him who will attentively study it. The laws which produce the impressions and changes upon that page, are few and comprehensible. Although there is great variety, even upon the limited portion which is bounded by our horizon, there is also substantial uniformity; and, although the changes are always extensive, often covering an area of one thousand miles or more, and our vision can not extend in any direction more than from thirty to fifty, yet those changes are always, to a considerable extent, intelligible, and may often be foreseen." "Has meteorology made such progress?" "By no means. It has, indeed, been raised to the dignity of a science, and professorships endowed for its advancement. Some books have been written, and many theories broached in relation to it; and innumerable observations of the states of the barometer and thermometer, of the clouds, and the quantity of fallen rain, and the direction and force of the wind--made and recorded simultaneously in different countries--have been published and compared; and a great many important facts established, and tables of '_means_' constructed, and just inferences drawn, yet the _few and simple arrangements_ upon which all the phenomena depend, and _their philosophy_, have not yet been clearly elicited or understood." "Have not the 'American Association for the Advancement of Science' arrived at some definite and sound conclusion upon the subject?"