REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 43 
dies, and some places in South America, &c., joined in the enterprise; 
and, with few exceptions, at the beginning of the war every dis- 
trict of considerable size had in it at least one if not more observers. 
All these contribute their services without compensation, their only 
reward being the satisfaction of co-operating with each other and 
the Institution in the effort to supply data and materials for investi- 
gation. Any returns, indeed, which the Institution has in its power 
to make are gladly rendered in a hearty acknowledgment of assist- 
ance, and in copies of all the Smithsonian publications likely to be 
of interest. 
Besides the materials obtained directly from the observers of the 
Institution, a large amount of other matter relative to the meteor- 
ology of North America has been accumulated—such as copies of all 
the known series of records for long periods which could be obtained; 
series which have been compiled during explorations and surveys for 
the government, those which have been the result of local associa- 
tions, and of the system of observations established in connexion with 
the survey of the great lakes, as well as of the common school system 
of Canada, and many thousand notices of the weather at different 
times and places, collected from newspapers and periodicals. 
No other part of the world has offered such facilities for the col- 
lection of meteorological data, the system extending over so large 
a portion of the earth’s surface; the observers, with few exceptions, 
all speaking the same’ language, and many of them being furnished 
with full sets of compared standard instruments. 
It is to be regretted that this system has been partially interrupted 
during the war, and that the portion of the income of the Smithsonian 
fund, which could be devoted to the reduction and discussion of the 
material collected, has not been adequate to the labor of deducing 
from so large a body of data all the valuable truths which they are 
capable of affording. It has had assistance, however, from the agri- 
cultural department of the Patent Office, by which the results of five 
years’ observations of all the elements and a series of i isailiaiiin 
for long periods have been prepared for publication. 
From all the observations made up to 1860, isothermal charts were 
constructed, presenting much more accurately than had ever been 
done before, the distribution of temperature over the continent of 
North America; a series of rain. charts, and also a large map exhibit- 
ing the regions of original forest, of arable prairie and of desert in 
the United States, have also been prepared. 
The Institution has fully established the fact, which was previously 
