WEATHER BUREAU. 65 



about 70 different companies, involving an expense of approximately 

 $250,000 per annum, is made by the employees of this division. 

 Settlement has followed closely upon their presentation. 



The division pamphlet, Instructions to Operators on the Weather 

 Bureau Telegraph and Telephone Lines, has been completely re- 

 vised during the year, the last previous revision having been made 

 in the year 1906. 



WEATHER BUREAU TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE LINES. 



Detailed statements and descriptions of the several telephone and 

 telegraph lines maintained by this bureau were submitted in the 

 report for last year and need not be repeated here as no changes of 

 material consequence claim attention. 



RIVER AND FLOOD SERVICE. 



The flood warning service has been maintained without appreciable 

 change, although for obvious reasons retrenchments have been made 

 whenever practicable. Fortunately no serious floods occurred in any 

 part of the country, yet one of the most serious ice gorges of which 

 there is a record formed in the early part of the winter in the Ohio 

 River below Cincinnati and held continuously for 58 days. This 

 gorge so reduced the cross section of the stream that when the ice in 

 the upper tributaries broke up and the flood waters came down a lake 

 or pool formed, extending about 100 miles upstream. At one time 

 the surface of this pool was higher than the river below the gorge 

 by about 25 feet, thus creating a situation of the utmost gravity along 

 the lower river. When the gorge finally broke, river craft moored 

 for the winter in sheltered places suffered great losses, aggregating 

 approximately $3,000,000. Coming at a time when replacement is 

 extremely difficult, such a loss must seriously retard the growth of 

 river transportation for several years. 



INSPECTIONS. 



The absence of serious floods gave the field officials of the bureau 

 a much needed opportunity of inspecting gaging stations and of 

 making the necessary repairs to the equipment. During the year 

 93 stations were inspected and repairs were made or were in progress 

 at the close of the year. 



SNOW MEASUREMENTS. 



Measurements of snow depth at high level stations in the West 

 were made at 147 stations, being a decrease of 18 as compared with 

 the previous year. Intensive snow surveys were necessarily aban- 

 doned except on the high levels of the watershed that supplies the 

 Roosevelt Reservoir of Arizona. 



PRECIPITATION IN MOUNTAINS OF LOS ANGELES AND SAN BERNARDINO COUN- 

 TIES OF CALIFORNIA. 



The project of determining the amount of precipitation in the 

 mountains of Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties, Cal., has 

 been carried on at 51 stations, an increase of 32 during the year, in 

 cooperation with the United States Forest Service of the department, 

 the United States Geological Survey and the counties above named, 

 and without cost to the bureau except for apparatus. 



