WEATHER BUREAU. 21 



phy is imperative in scientific research, and as soon as the present 

 exiijeucies admit, more attention will be devoted to tlie subject of 

 meteorological bibliography, and the endeavor will be made to close 

 the hiatus caused bj' the suspension of our l)ibliograi3hic work some 

 ten years ago to its partial resumption within the last year. 



The number of volumes in the library has been increased during the 

 year by 782 accessions, most of which are meteorological reports of other 

 weather services. Many of these works can not be accommodated for 

 lack of space, but remain in sacks and packages stored on the floor. 

 Arrangements, therefore, will soon be made to assign additional room to 

 the librar^^ The Bureau now especiallj^ encourages the study of meteor- 

 ology-, not onlj' in the public schools but also in the colleges and the 

 universities of the countrj\ This action is attracting the attention 

 of teachers and students to the central ofiice. It is a place for study ; 

 a place where the advantages of the collected data of the world may 

 be obtained, and it is* the onlj^ place of the sort in this country. In 

 modern research work two instrumentalities stand out coequal and 

 coimportant — librarj" and laboratory — the librarj', from which to learn 

 what other workers have thought and done; the laboratory, in which 

 to do that which oneself thinks out. The use made by our own offi- 

 cials of the library may be best shown by the fact that there are pres- 

 ent more than 350 volumes charged to and in use in the difi'erent divi- 

 sions and sections of the office. No record has ever been kept of daily 

 calls for books, but it is not improbable that more than a thousand 

 books are taken out of the library for consultation annually. Having 

 what we believe to be the largest and most complete meteorological 

 library extant, it should be our aim to make it the most useful. 



EXAMINATIONS. 



There have been held during the year 71 examinations — 30 of em- 

 ployees not previously examined in any branch, and 35 of employees 

 that had passed the first-grade examinations and who were taking the 

 examinations prescribed for one or more of the other grades or had 

 failed in some branch in which previously examined. It is believed 

 that the purposes of the examinations could be greatly aided if the 

 questions as marked, together with the reasons for the marking, could 

 be sul)mitted to the examinee, and the sui^ervising examiner has been 

 instructed to do so in the future. To tell one that one is in error is 

 of course valual)le, but to tell one how he comes to be in error is more 

 valuable — it is educative. 



TELEGRAPH LINES. 



No change has taken place since the last annual report in the total 

 mileage (367 miles) of telegraph and telephone lines owned and oper- 

 ated bj' the Weather Bureau, no new lines having been built nor any 

 old ones abandoned during the year. 



No extensive line repairs have been needed except on the Tatoosh 

 Island section, where general I'epairs are now under way, preparatory 

 to the reestablishment of telegraphic communication with the new 

 station about to be erected on that island. A wire span, supported 

 on steel towers, is in course of erection between the island and the 

 mainland, in lieu of a submarine cable which, as costly exjjerience 

 during past years has demonstrated, can not be economically main- 

 tained in that locality. 



