EDITORIAL NOTE 



The data have been arranged for publication alphabetically, first 

 under the grand divisions of the earth as Africa, Asia, Europe, etc., 

 then by countries under each division and finally by stations in each 

 country ; except in the case of Australia, Africa and the Indian Ocean, 

 where it was found more practical to arrange the stations alphabeti- 

 cally under the larger divisions. 



The grand divisions and the countries are given under their English 

 names, but the names of the stations have been taken as nearly as possi- 

 ble to accord with the spelling used in the countries where they are 

 located, and the English equivalent is given in parentheses. 



The units used are those of the countries where the observations 

 were made, and are given as they were received. 



Owing to the diversity of units used, and to the fact that explana- 

 tion of the methods and the hours of observation were best arranged 

 by countries, it was not considered feasible to publish the data by 

 10° squares of latitude and longitude, as is done in the Reseau Mon- 

 dial. An index of the stations according to the Reseau Mondial system 

 is provided at the end of the publication. 



The material published has been collected, in so far as possible, 

 from official sources responsible for the observations. In addition a 

 large part of the data has been checked against neighboring stations 

 by the various collectors, in order to eliminate errors which easily 

 creep in when copying so large a mass of material. Many such errors 

 were found and corrected by correspondence. In addition, small breaks 

 in the continuity of the records were disclosed, and some of these were 

 corrected by correspondence with the bureaus and offices responsible 

 for the records. The causes of others could not be found, and they 

 were left without change. 



The records coming from so many dififerent sources were arranged 

 under many dififerent headings. They have been rearranged accord- 

 ing to a uniform system. 



For reasons of economy, the notes and explanations are placed 

 together in the first part of the publication, and the tables of data 

 follow. The notes and the tables are arranged in the same alpha- 

 betical order, so that it will be easy to turn from one to the other. For 

 some of the stations the notes and explanations are very full, for 



