DEPARTMENT OF TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM. 295 



difficult conditions, and particularly the long delay involved in the 

 final transfer of the observatory site to the Department, good progress 

 had been made in the construction work. (See p. 296). While 

 at Lima, Messrs. Fleming and Edmonds, in company with Mr. W. 

 Walter Smith, charge d'affaires of the American embassy, had the 

 privilege of calling upon President Leguia of Peru, and expressing to 

 him the Department's grateful appreciation of the interest sho"^Ti by 

 His Excellency and the Peruvian Government in the projected observa- 

 tory and of the various courtesies extended respecting free entry of 

 equipment and materials. 



Mr. Fleming left Callao for New Orleans on March 31, arriving 

 there AprU 15 and reporting at the office in Washington on April 17. 



OBSERVATORY WORK. 

 WATHEROO MAGNETIC OBSERVATORY. 



Magnetician E. Kidson arrived at the observatory on November 7, 

 1919, and reheved Magnetician W. F. Wallis, who left for the office 

 at Washington on November 17. As stated in last year's report, the 

 photographic registrations for the magnetic elements were begun on 

 January 1, 1919. The following summary of the observatory^ work 

 during the j^ear is taken from Mr. Kidson's report : 



Towards the end of 1919 it was possible to begin the preliminary 

 reduction of the magnetograph records for the year. During 1920 

 the magnetograph has been kept in continuous operation. Further- 

 more, there were made daily meteorological observations, weekly 

 determinations of the absolute magnetic elements, weekly time obser- 

 vations and monthly scale-value determinations for the variation 

 instruments. All preliminary computations and checking of the 

 various observations and the preliminary tabulation of 60-minute 

 scalings from the magnetograms have been kept up to date and the 

 records sent to the office of the Department. It was also possible 

 by June 1920 to reduce the observations accumulated during 1919, 

 when the time of Messrs. Wallis and Parkinson was ahnost entkely 

 consumed by construction work. The final reductions and compila- 

 tions of the observatory-data are under way. The improvements 

 made during the year were as follows : 



(1) The well was deepened by 15 feet in order to increase the water-supply, 

 which had fallen off very seriously in consequence of two exceptionally dry 

 seasons. It is hoped that by strict economy in summer it may not be neces- 

 sary in future to cart water to the observatory. 



(2) A wire fence has been erected around the main reserve of the observa- 

 tory and a smaller one around the observers' quarters, garden, and orchard. 



(3) A small shed for use as a store-room was built 100 feet in the rear of 

 the variation observatory. 



(4) A hooded sulky was purchased and an extension was built to the stable 

 for housing it. 



