EEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 43 



has been discussed, and tables giving the times of sunrise and sunset 

 for stations between hititudes 23° and 60°, to be used for corrections of 

 daily \ai-iatiou, have been computed. The annual fluctuations of tem- 

 perature have been in part discussed, and the tables of maxima and 

 minima are in an advanced state toward completion. 



All the observations relative to the winds, made under the direction 

 of the Institution, and under the Medical Department of the Army, and 

 all those which have been collected from other sources, have been 

 I)laced in charge of Professor J. H. Cofiin, of Lafayette College, for 

 reduction and discussion. It was first intended to limit the investiga- 

 tion to the winds of North America, but it has since been considered 

 advisable to incorporate the whole in a memoir on the general direction 

 of the winds of the globe. To defray the cost of the extra labor, other 

 than that of Professor Cofliinjin this investigation, an appropriation has 

 been made from the income of the Institution. During the year, Pro- 

 fessor Coffin has been i^ressing on this work, with a number of assistants, 

 as rapidly as the means at his command and his time would allow. 



The Smithsonian meteorological system was commenced in 1849, and 

 has continued in operation until the present time. Its efforts have been 

 directed in the line of supplementing and harmonizing other systems, 

 of a more limited character, with that of the more general one of the 

 Army of the United States, and iu some measure with the system estab- 

 lished in Canada. It has done good service to the cause of meteorology, 

 1, in inaugurating the system which has been in operation upward of 

 twenty years; 2, in the introduction of improved instruments after 

 discussion and experiments ; 3, in i^reparing and publishing at its ex- 

 pense an extensive series of meteorological tables ; 4, iu reducing and 

 discussing the meteorological material which could be obtained from 

 all the records from the first settlement of the country till within a few 

 years ; 5, in being the first to show the practicability of telegraphic 

 weather signals ; G, in i^ublishiug records and discussions made at its 

 own expense, of the Arctic expeditions of Kane, Hayes, and McClin- 

 tock ; 7, iu discussing and publishing a number of series of special 

 records embracing periods of from twenty to fifty years iu diflerent sec- 

 tions of the United States, of great interest in determining secular 

 changes of the climate; 8, in the publication of a series of memoirs on 

 various meteorological phenomena, embracing observations and discus- 

 sions of storms, tornadoes, meteors, auroras, &c. ; 9, in a diffusion of a 

 knowledge of meteorology through its extensive unpublished corre- 

 spondence and its printed circulars. It has done all in this line which 

 its limited means would permit, and has urged upon Congress the estab- 

 lishment, with adequate appropriation of funds, of a meteorological 

 department under one comprehensive plan, in which the records should 

 be sent to a central depot for rodiictiou, discussion, and final publica- 

 tion. 



An important step has been made toward this desirable object iu the 



