JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. 18o 



October 6, 18G2. 

 The President, Dr. Engelmaxn, in the chair. 



Eight members present. 



A letter was read from Secretary of Smithson. Inst., trans- 

 mitting donations to the library. 



The following publications were received : Canadian Nat. 

 & Geol. & Proc. Nat. Hist, Soc., Montreal, Aug. L862, from 

 the Society ; Bull, de la Societe Imp. zool. d'Acclimatation, 

 Paris, No. 8, Aout, 1862, from the Society. 



Dr. Engelmann exhibited diagrams of comparison of simul- 

 taneous observations in Colorado Territory and St. Louis 

 showing the relative correspondence in the fluctuations of the 

 atmospheric pressure at these two stations. 



Dr. Engelmann stated that the quantity of rain for Sep- 

 tember, 1862, was larger than he had ever before observed 

 during that month, which is generally, with the exception of 

 January and February, the dryest month of the year, furnish- 

 ing not quite 3 inches (2.93) of rain. The quantity of rain 

 last September was 6.27 inches ; the next largest quantity 

 was observed in September, 1849, amounting to 5.81 inches. 



October 20, 1862. 

 The President, Dr. Engelmann, in the chair. 



Six members present. 



The following publications were received : Smithsonian 

 Report for 1861, 8vo, 1862,/rom the Institution ; Proc. Bos- 

 ton Soc. Nat. Hist., Sept. 1862, from the Society. 



Dr. J. M. Bigelow, of the Northern Lake Survey, read a 

 paper "On the waves of Atmospheric Pressure and their pro- 

 gress from West to East along the Great Northern Lakes," 

 from which he furnished an extract, as follows : 



If it is possible to foretell the advent of a storm, by observations upon 

 the barometer 12 to 24 hours beforehand, at St. Louis, or the stations near 

 Lake Huron, with absolute certainty, there can be no doubt of its practi- 

 cal importance to the Atlantic coasts, and the more eastern portions of 

 navigation on the Lakes. 



Early foreseeing the essential consequence to be realized from the col- 

 lection of a connected series of reliable meterologi.-al data, at various 

 points of the five great Northern and North-w-stern Lakes, upon this 

 fundament \\ question, Capt. Geo. G. Meade of the Topographic 1 Engi- 

 neers, then the Superintendent of the Survey, with the sagacity and 

 promptness peculiar to his character, adopted, in 1859, a series of stations, 

 commencing at the most extreme western point of Lake Superior, and 

 ending with the most eastern extremity of Lake Ontario. With'n these 

 topographical limits there are fourteen stations, where tri-daily observa- 



