REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 53 



these labors the Institution has been in continued harmonious co-ope- 

 ration with all the other efforts made in this country to advance 

 meteorolo2;y, except those formerl}^ conducted by the Navy Depart- 

 ment under Lieutenant Maury. These were confined exclusively to 

 the sea, and had no reference to those made at the same time on land. 

 Without desiring to disparage the labors of Lieutenant Maury, 1 may 

 say that his results would have lost nothing of their value by the 

 adoption of a less exclusive policy on his part. The meteorology of 

 the sea and that of the land pertain to a connected series of pheno- 

 mena which can only be properly studied by a combined system of ob- 

 servations relating to both. The method pursued by Lieutenant Maury 

 consisted in dividing the surface of a map of the ocean into squares of 

 ten degrees on a side, and in recording within each of tiiese the di- 

 rections of the winds obtained from the log-books of the vessels which 

 had traversed the several regions. In this way he accumulated a large 

 amount of data, which, though published in connexion with many 

 crude hypotheses, are of great value in the study of the meteorol- 

 ogy of the globe. 



In 1853 a meteorological system was commenced in Canada, the 

 senior grammar school in each county being provided with instru- 

 ments, and the observations have been continued to the present 

 time. In regard to this system, Mr. Hodgins, of the educational de- 

 partment, remarks : "We have never lost sight of the great practi- 

 cal importance to a new and partially settled country, of establish- 

 ing early in its history, before its physical condition is materially 

 changed, a complete and comprehensive system of meteorological 

 observations, by which may be tested theories of science which are 

 yet unsettled, and which maybe solved, relating to natural phenomena 

 which have long remained among the sealed mysteries of nature." 



The observations thus far have been taken without remuneration, 

 but the importance of the system has become so well recognized 

 that the Canadian government has decided to establish ten perma- 

 nent stations, in addition to the observatories at Toronto and Kings- 

 ton, distributed so as to afford the most complete information relative 

 to the climatic features of the whole province. The points selected 

 are Windsor, Goderich, Stratford, Simcoe, Barrie, Hamilton, Peter- 

 borough, Belleville, Pembroke, and Cornwall; that is, two stations 

 on Lake Erie, one on Lake Huron, three on Lake Ontario, one on 

 Lake Simcoe, one on the Ottawa river, one on the bay of Quintd, 

 one on the St. Lawrence, near the eastern. extremity of the province, 

 and two in the interior of the country. The records made at the 

 public schools of Canada have been furnished to the Smithsonian In- 



