CLEVELAND ABBE. XV 



pendent publication of the Bulletin was, however, discontinued, and it has, 

 since December i, only appeared in the morning papers. The daily compila- 

 tion of this Bulletin for the newspapers was undertaken two weeks ago by 

 the Cincinnati Office of the Western Union Telegraph Company, and will so 

 continue, thus relieving the Observatory of all further responsibility. 



" In February the manager of the Cincinnati office undertook the publi- 

 cation of a daily weather chart, and the favor that this has met with insures 

 its continuation in the future. The Daily Weather Bulletin and Chart are, 

 therefore, now supported solely by the Western Union Telegraph Company, 

 and must be considered as a very important contribution to meteorology. It 

 would have been highly to the credit of the Observatory could these publica- 

 tions have been maintained in its own name; but this was impossible owing 

 to the want of funds and assistants." 



Writing of this matter to his father in New York, he said 

 prophetically " I have started that which the country will not 

 willingly let die." 



Other forces and influences were also at work to perpetuate and 

 nurture this embryo Weather Bttreau for the benefit of the nation. 

 The Executive Documents and the Congressional Globe of the 41st 

 Congress, 2d session, show that on December 14, 1869, Hon. Hal- 

 bert E. Paine, Member of Congress from Wisconsin, introduced 

 a bill to create a weather warning service under the Secretary of 

 War. The Document accompanying this bill consisted of a Me- 

 morial of Prof. Increase A. Lapham of Milwaukee, Wis., entitled 

 " Disasters on the Lakes," and comprised a record of the marine 

 disasters on the Lakes for 1869. The legislation finally enacted was 

 the passage of a Joint Resolution, also introduced by Mr. Paine, 

 which passed the House of Representatives February 2, 1870; the 

 Senate on February 4, 1870; and was signed and approved by the 

 President February 9, 1870. We may therefore conclude that the 

 passage of the legislation establishing meteorological observations 

 and reports in the United States was accomplished chiefly by the 

 Hon. Halbert E. Paine upon the representations of Prof. L A. 

 Lapham. 



No one has been more scrupulously careful than Abbe himself, 

 as can be shown by documentary evidence, to give Professor Lapham 

 the fullest measure of credit for the work done by him which prac- 

 tically ended with the enactment of the law which imposed upon the 

 Secretary of War the task of organizing meteorological observa- 



