p.1

Ans'd Dec 18

New York
Dec 13th 1871

Dr Lapham,

Dear Sir,

I have for some
time taken great pleasure in
watching the changes of the weather,
and trying to predict what changes
we should be likely to have for the
following day: in this I have only
partially succeeded as yet, and I
have for about a month been
reading Mr. Espy's law on Storms
and Dove's also; from these I have
learned a great deal, but have also
found that there is much more
to be learned.

My great object in writing to
you is to find some way of telling
in which direction the wind is
likely to blow and also its mean
force.