DESCRIPTIONS OF STATIONS. 



One of the chief difficulties experienced by the Department in the reoccupation 

 of old stations for secular variation data has been the lack of necessary information 

 to permit precise recovery of the point where the previous observations were made. 

 Owing to the frequent occurrence of local disturbances, it may readily happen that 

 erroneous secular variation data will result from non-recovery of exact station. 

 Accordingly the observers of the Department are instructed to furnish as complete 

 descriptions as possible of stations occupied, especially of such as give promise of 

 future availability. Information additional to that contained in the published 

 descriptions or copies of station-sketches or of photographs of surroundings will 

 gladly be furnished tho^e who are interested in the reoccupation of any of the 

 stations. 



The descriptions are given in alphabetical order under the same geographical 

 divisions adopted in the Summary of Results. The general form followed in the 

 descriptions is: Name of station, year when occupied, general location, detailed 

 location, distances and references to surrounding objects, manner of marking, and 

 finally the true bearings of prominent objects likely to be of permanent character. 

 All bearings unless specifically stated otherwise are true ones and are reckoned 

 continuously from to 360, from the south through the west. Occasionally no 

 description of a station listed in the Summary will be found; this is because the 

 description as furnished by the observer, for one reason or another, was too meager 

 to be worth publishing or it may be that the station was only a temporary one and 

 was used chiefly as an auxiliary or secondary station. For some expeditions, as 

 for example in Africa and Asia, owing to the absence of surrounding objects to 

 which reference could be made, the descriptions of stations naturally could not be 

 made very full or precise. When no mention is made of marking of station, it is 

 to be understood that the station was either not marked at all or not in a permanent 

 manner. 



The majority of the measured distances were made originally' in the English 

 system; however, the distances obtained by conversion into the metric system are 

 also given but inclosed in parentheses so as to show that they are converted figures. 

 The following rules have been adopted in the conversions: distances given to 0.01 

 foot are converted to the nearest 0.001 meter, 0.1 foot to the nearest 0.01 meter, 

 1 foot to the nearest 0.1 meter, estimated feet or yards to nearest meter, estimated 

 fraction of a mile to nearest 0.1 kilometer, estimations of more than a mile to nearest 

 kilometer. Short and important reference distances, when measured accurately, 

 have been converted into nearest 0.1 centimeter; such measurements, however, as for 

 example, dimensions of marking stones, etc., which are not of great importance, 

 have been converted to the nearest centimeter. 



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