55 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



meteorological stations are placed along the line, the highest being 

 6,800 feet above the sea. Another line of stations follows the Rio 

 Grande River from its month to the elevated plateau of Colorado. 



" The Mexican telegraph-lines now extend from the mouth of the 

 Rio Grande River to San Luis, thence to Tampico, and thence through 

 Vera Cruz along the coast nearly to the extremity of Yucatan. The 

 Signal Service are preparing to place stations down even to Yucatan. 

 The Gulf of Mexico has been nearly encircled with a telegraph-line, 

 along which meteorological stations will be placed at such short 

 intervals that no hurricane or storm can move from the Gulf without 

 notice of its escape and the direction of its flight being given at once 

 to the whole country. 



"Arrangements have been made for a chain of stations to the ex- 

 treme eastern end of the West Indies, all connected by telegraph with 

 the Washington office. If Congress is wise enough to give sufficient 

 appropriation to carry out these excellent plans, it w r ill be impossible 

 for any hurricane to enter the United States from the south un- 

 heralded, for hourly bulletins of its progress can be posted in every 

 seaport. Who can estimate the lives and treasure that such an ar- 

 rangement may save? Congress cannot be too generous to the Sig- 

 nal Service. 



"To show the power of the telegraph in this connection, I may 

 mention that General Myer recently sent, at twelve o'clock at night, 

 an order to each meteorological station in this country. It was unex- 

 pected by the corps, but so perfect is the discipline that within ninety 

 minutes the Washington office received answers from every station, 

 even including that on the lofty elevation of Pike's Peak, and the 

 lonely desert of Fort Yuma. 



"At General Myer's suggestion, an international meteorological 

 organization was effected in \&13. Observations are now taken 

 once a day, simultaneously, at every meteorological station in the 

 world, and the results forwarded to the Signal Service Office at 

 Washing-ton. 



"Every day this office publishes a bulletin, giving the record of 

 these simultaneous observations from all stations. The date of the 

 bulletin is necessai'ily long enough after the observations to admit of 

 their reaching Washington. The climate of the world is thus placed 

 under our eyes at once. When this is carried to perfection, the laws 

 that govern climate may be determined." 



The petrified forest in the desert of Humboldt County, North- 

 western Nevada, has been examined. The stumps of the trees now 

 transformed into rock are found in an upright position, with their 

 roots imbedded in the soil as when growing many of the stumps 

 measuring from fifteen to twenty feet in circumference; and the 

 ground was found strewed with trunks and limbs in the same petri- 

 fied state, retaining their natural shape and size. There were no liv- 



