RETORT OF THE SECRETARY. 45 



From Queen's College, Kingston, Canada West, summary of ob- 

 servations for 1858. 



The observations from Captain George G. Meade, noted on the 

 opposite page, consist of fifty-eight sheets, made with full sets of 

 instruments, on the northern and northwestern lakes, from June, 

 1858, to November, 1859, inclusive. The continuation of these will 

 be of much value in regard to the climate of this region. Those from 

 Captain A. W. Whipple were made at Oswego harbor, Detroit river, 

 St. Clair flats, and Lake George, of St. Mary's river, for the purpose 

 of determining the rise and fall of the lake surface, from the year 

 1854 to 1859, inclusive. 



Between four and five thousand newspaper notices of the weather 

 of 1859 have been cut out and preserved. Besides the papers re- 

 ceived by the Institution, a large number of exchange papers are 

 obtained from the office of the Evening Star. These two sources 

 together furnish the means, either by original or copied articles, of 

 obtaining popular notices of the principal changes of weather and 

 meteorological phenomena in nearly all parts of the country. The 

 method of preserving the scraps is to paste them on sheets arranged, 

 not by the date of the paper, but by that of the occurrence noted. 

 By this arrangement all notices of any storm, hot or cold terms, 

 aurora, earthquake, or any other phenomenon, are brought together, 

 no matter how widely apart may be the place of publication. It 

 would be an acceptable donation if all readers, when they meet with 

 any meteorological scrap worthy of preservation, would send the 

 paper containing it to the Institution, or the article cut out, with the 

 name, date, and place of publication of the paper plainly marked on 

 the slip. Without these marks it would be sometimes impossible 

 to identify either time or locality. The preferable mode is to send 

 the entire paper. 



A general distribution of blanks is made twice a year. In this 

 distribution twelve blanks are sent to each observer, one for each 

 month, to be retained for his own use, and one to be returned to the 

 Institution. 



As the registers come from all parts of the country, and arrive at 

 different times, a number are received every day, sometimes as many 

 as thirty or forty. A book is kept containing the names of all the 

 observers, with their place of observation; and when the registers 

 are received, an entry of each one is made in this book, so that, by 

 inspection, it can be seen at any time for what months registers have 



