REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 17 



The first work of tbis class which has been published is that of the 

 the Raiu-fall. It included all the material which had been collected 

 down to 18G6. It is now proposed to publish a new edition of this 

 work, containing the additions since made, with improved maps, on a 

 larger scale. 



The next work of the same class is that on the Winds of the Globe, 

 comprising the result of the discussion of not only the observations 

 made under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution in the United 

 States, but of those of every other part of the world of which the records 

 were attainable. This work, to which the labors of Prof. J. H. Coffin, of 

 Lafayette College, were for many years devoted, was nearly completed 

 at the time of his death, has been continued by his son, Prof Selden 

 J. Coffin, and is now in the press. Very little, however, was done by 

 the elder Coffin in the way of stating, in general propositions, the results 

 contained in the large number of tables which he had elaborated. To 

 supply this deficiency the Institution has fortunately been enabled to 

 avail itself of the assistance of Dr. A. Woeikof, member of the Geo- 

 graphical Society of Russia, and late secretary of its meteorological 

 commission, who, visiting this country for the study of its climatology, 

 cheerfully undertook the required task. 



The printing of this work is very expensive. It will occupy an entire 

 volume of the Smithsonian Contributions, and comprise upward of 600 

 quarto pages of tabular matter, besides the letter-ijress. It will, how- 

 ever, we are confident, form a contribution to knowledge which will 

 be a lasting monument to the industry of Professor Coffin and to the 

 policy of the Smithsonian Institution. 



The next work of the same class is that on the Temperature of the 

 United States. It has been in progress at the expense of the Institu- 

 tion for a number of years. It includes the result of the discussion of 

 all the observations which have been made in this country from the 

 earliest times down to the present. It is illustrated by three maps of 

 isothermal spaces — one exhibiting the annual, another the summer, and 

 the third the winter distribution of temperature — and a number of 

 diagrams incorporated in the text. It has been from the first under 

 the direction of Prof. Charles A. Schott, of the Coast Survey, assisted 

 by a number of computers, at the expense of the Smithson fund. The 

 maps have been drawn and are in the hands of the engraver, and the 

 whole work will be printed and distributed during the present year. It 

 will form the first trustworthy approximation to an exhibition of the 

 temperature of the various portions of the United States which has ever 

 been published. The preparation of it hag been more expensive thiin 

 any other work ever undertaken by the Institution. 



Another work in progress is that relative to the geographical distri- 

 bution in the United States of thunder-storms, the frequency of their 

 occurrence in different seasons, and effects produced by discharges of 

 lightning, as compiled from all the records of the Institution during 

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