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teorolug'ical recurd, beg'inning in 1858 and continuing, with a partial inter- 

 ruption from 1869 to 1873, till 1883. This record is in the possession of the 

 local U. S. Weather Bureau, and through the courtesy of Mr. G. A. Love- 

 land, the writer has been allowed the privilege of examining it. 



Scattered through the pages of this record are numerous references of 

 interest to the biologist — notes on the occurrence of grasshoppers, the time 

 of appearance of flowers and birds in spring, etc. — and at the end is a sum- 

 mary headed "Progress of Seasons". Under this caption a table compiled 

 by Dr. Child, and bearing date Jan. 26, 1874, was printed in the "Omaha 

 Republican", and under the same title was published in the Transactions 

 of the State Board of Agriculture in 1879, a more extended review bringing 

 the record up to the end of that year. In the original record this summary 

 is brought down to the beginning of 1883. 



These different summaries agree, except for a few discrepancies due to 

 errors made in transcribing, and excusable in view of Dr. Child's advanced 

 years. The notes in the body of the original record which is under exam- 

 ination, however, are by no means so full or so accurate as in the summar- 

 ies at the end, and this leads to the natural inference that either it was 

 compared with other records and corrected and amplified by facts obtained 

 from other sources, or else that it was only a part of the record kept by its 

 author. Prom internal evidence the former supposition seems the more 

 probable, and the probability is increased by the fact that the summary 

 just referred to contains records on birds not included in the published 

 summary of 1879, although antedating by several years the date of publi- 

 cati<jn of the latter. If the other be true, it is most desirable that the miss- 

 ing portion be found and placed where it will be permanently preserved. 

 In either case the writer believes the summary may be accepted essentially 

 as it stands, for Dr. Child was apparently both careful and accurate, and 

 not likely to have published anything not perfectly reliable. 



It is interesting to glance through the record. The very cold winters 

 were those of 1859-'60, '72-'73, '74-75, and '80-'81, and of these '80-'81 was 

 the most severe, the mean temperature for the three winter months being 

 14.14°, or 7.56° below the normal, and there being thirty-six days during the 

 winter on which the temperature fell to below the zero point. Under date 

 of March 23, '81, is this note: "The first really pleasant day since Nov. 1, 

 1^80— 143 days." The winter of '74-'75 was also a noteworthy one; under 

 date of Feb. 17— "The mean temperature since Dec. 28, to date, fifty-one 

 days, is 7.50°!!!". The very warm winters were those of '62-'63, '75-'76 and 

 '77-'78, the mean for '75-'76 being 7.47° above the normal, and that for '77- 

 '78, 11.31° in excess, while in each one of the three seasons the temperature 

 reached zero onlj' three times. January of 1880 was much the warmest Jan- 

 uary recorded, the mean for the month exceeding the normal by 14.54°, and 

 during the month Dr. Child noted Bluebirds, Robins, Phoebes and Spar- 

 rows. On the 8th he says, "Ground thawed out in many places and spring- 

 like weather, birds, etc., prevail"; on the 25th, "A tint of green on cotton- 

 wood timber." 



Of the springs, those of '58, '60, '63, '76 and '78 were particularly early, 

 and those of '62, '67 and '81 especially late; while the warmest springs as a 



