Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 39.djvu/126

116 observation, that Captain Hoffmeyer has left his mark on the science—these principles being the relations of winds, temperature, and rainfall to the distribution of atmospheric pressure. In working out the weather problem of Europe, no country occupies a more splendid position for the observation of the required data than does Denmark with its dependencies of Faroe, Iceland, and Greenland. Denmark was slow to occupy the field, nothing having been done by the Danish Government prior to Hoffmeyer s appointment as Director of the Meteorological Institute. In a short time these important regions were represented by ' stations in Greenland, Iceland, and Faroe. The meteorology of Denmark proper was pushed forward with great vigor."

Of this work Mr. E. Ersley said, in an address to the Danish Geographical Society on the occasion of Hoffmeyer's death: "Hoffmeyer saw very early and clearly that our little country was of great importance in meteorology; for it lies between two seas, the North Sea and the Baltic, and exhibits a peculiar division of land and water, while storms sometimes originate in its precincts. For that reason we ought to endeavor to establish as many observing stations as possible. His efforts to accomplish this were embarrassed by the scantiness of the means allowed the Institute. But his practical sense came to his help, and he engaged a large number of private persons to erect stations where daily observations might be taken—at most of them without pay, and also at many without instruments except such as were privately furnished. In this way our country has been planted with not less than two hundred minor meteorological stations. He also saw that our further possessions, which were as good as unknown meteorologically, might be made members of extreme importance in the series of weather observations. He therefore secured meteorological stations in them—six in the Faroes, twenty-three in Iceland, and fourteen in Greenland, besides using his persuasive conversational powers to induce many ship-captains to take instruments on their voyages, especially on those to Iceland and Greenland."

Hoffmeyer labored at the Institute twelve years uninterruptedly for the advancement of meteorology, and, although suffering much in his later years from the effects of his rheumatic fever on his heart, with irrepressible energy.

In 1873 Hoffmeyer began the publication of the monthly Meteorological Bulletin of the North, and shortly afterward the issue of a daily meteorological chart for his own country, Norway, Sweden, and northwest Russia. To this chart was added an explanation for the use of subscribers. The work was found valuable by English meteorologists, because it supplemented their own daily weather charts and those of the Bulletin International,