REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT, I907. 3I 



intensity were secured at intervals of 200 to 250 miles along these courses, 

 as well as at numerous points on islands and at prominent ports. All of the 

 results of this extensive survey available in March of the present year were 

 furnished to the U. S. Navy Department and incorporated in a magnetic 

 chart issued in IMay last by that department for the benefit of mariners. 

 Important errors in previous charts, amounting in cases to as much as 5° in 

 magnetic declination along some main routes of transportation, were thus 

 corrected. 



For an account of the work done at the numerous and widely separated land 

 stations during the year, reference must be made to the director's report to be 

 found on pp. 154-166 of this volume. Similar reference must be made also 

 for an account of the computations and special investigations carried on at 

 the office by Dr. Bauer and his stafif. Attention is invited likewise to the 

 annual bibliography for a list of the departmental publications. One of the 

 latter, however, is worthy of special mention and commendation here, 

 namely, a quarto volume of 629 pages, giving the detailed results of the mag- 

 netic, tidal, astronomical, and meteorological observations made by Mr. W. 

 J. Peters while serving as a member of the Ziegler Polar Expedition of 

 1903- 1905. Air. Peters has been in charge of the Galilee since January, 

 1906, and as his duties at sea have prevented him from attending to the pub- 

 lication of his work, the task of editor has been assumed by his colleague, 

 Mr. John A. Fleming. The handsome volume issued under Mr. Fleming's 

 editorship has been published under the auspices of the National Geographic 

 Society by the estate of William Ziegler. 



Many researches begun by aid of minor grants made during the past six 

 years have been carried forward during the current year. Twenty-one vol- 

 umes giving the results of these researches have been 



^M^nor^Gran?s!" published during the year, and several more are in press. 

 In addition, as may be seen by reference to the bibliog- 

 raphy on pp. 46-54, many briefer or preliminary papers have been published 

 in journals. f 



A list of the volumes issued during the year will be found in the next sec- 

 tion of this report. Of the works in press, attention may be called here to a 

 second volume giving the archeological and physiographical results of 

 explorations in Turkestan under the direction of Prof. Raphael Pumpelly; 

 to two works on engineering, on high steam pressures in locomotive service 

 and on the performance of screw propellers, by Prof. W. F. M. Goss and 

 Prof. W. F. Durand, respectively ; to the Vulgate Version of the Arthurian 

 Romances, by Dr. H. Oskar Sommer; to a reproduction, with translation 

 and annotations, of "The Old Yellow Book," the source of Browning's "The 

 Ring and the Book," by Prof. Charles W. Hodell ; to a monograph on The 

 Fossil Turtles of North America, by Dr. O. P. Hay ; to a treatise on dynamic 



