XXX GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND 



for from Cape Ilatteras to Cape Cod, within Avliich region 

 about twenty-live coast stations are included, and the entire 

 line of telegraph is daily patroled by the officers of the gov- 

 ernment. JSii^nal stations have also been establislied in Cuba 

 and Ilavti. 



A highly important addition has also been made to the in- 

 terior stations of this country in the establishing of three 

 observers on the summit of Pike's Peak, Colorado, the reports 

 from which Avill be of as great interest, both to the public at 

 large and to scientists, as are those from the summit of 

 Mount ^yashington. 



The system of daily reports of the height of water in rivers 

 and harbors, has received, a wide extension by the addition 

 of about forty stations during the season of navigation along 

 the Mississippi River and its tributaries, and the reports from 

 these constitute one of the most remarkable features of the 

 activity of the service, giving us, as is given nowhere else in 

 the world, a daily graphical view of the motion of the waves 

 of high and low water down the valleys of those rivers. 



At the suo-crestion of the United States Fish Commissioner, 

 Professor Baird, the signal service has also added to its other 

 labors the daily observation of the temperature of the water 

 at such of its stations as are in the neighborhood of rivers, 

 lakes, or oceans. We are here again brought into contact with 

 one of the most interesting and as yet little-known features 

 of terrestrial jihysics, and valuable results can not but be ex- 

 pected to flow from these observations. 



The rapid growth of the meteorological system of the 

 Army Signal Office has justified, the important action lately 

 taken by the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, by 

 which he has transferred the entire meteorological system, fos- 

 tered by him with so great care during the past thirty years, 

 to the care of the chief signal officer of the army. By this 

 arrangement, a staff of about five hundred volunteer observ- 

 ers is added to the corps of this branch of the government 

 service. Inasmuch as the relations of the government with 

 these gentlemen is to be of a purely private and unofficial 

 character, it is confidently expected that there will thereby 

 result a decided advantage to the study of meteorology in 

 the United States, in that the enthusiasm of amateurs will 

 every where be stimulated to the point of doing good work. 



