W ether – Feruary 212, ol. 7, o. 2 en Potraits of Pridents – Thom as Sopw ith North umberland for the keeping of correct observations: it was realised that knowledge of the weather was important to the lives and property of the fishing population. He was President of the British Meteorological Society from 1859 to 1860 and gave an address to the Society on 16 November 1859 entitled On the Practical Importance of Meteorology (Sopwith, 1859). In this he stressed the effect of meteorological conditions on the health of communities: in particular, he referred to coal-mining where valuable practical inferences could be derived from exact observations on the path of storms and the pressure and temperature of the atmosphere as influencing the ventilation of mines. Sopwith perceptively described the Helm Wind as a curious local phenomenon, which occurs as a strong and often violent northeasterly wind blowing down the western slope of the Crossfell Range in Westmorland and Cumberland (Cumbria): a wind, which on account of its origin, is decidedly cold. It is most common in late winter and spring. When the Helm Wind is blowing, a heavy bank of cloud, the Helm, rests along or just above the Crossfell Range and at a distance of one to four miles from the foot of the Fell a slender, nearly stationary, roll of whirling cloud, the Helm Bar, appears in mid-air, parallel with the Helm. The cold wind blows strongly down the steep fell sides until it comes nearly under the Bar, when it suddenly ceases: approaching this point it is Correspondence to: Michael Field, 9 The Mustchin Fountain, Green Lane Close, Arundel, West Sussex, BN18 9QB