668 The Smithsonian Institution 



North American continent: i. A miscellaneous collection of 

 manuscripts and other tables relative to the climate of the 

 United States; 2. The observations made under the direc- 

 tion of the Smithsonian Institution subsequent to 1849; 3- 

 A series of observations made by Doctor Luis Berlandier in 

 Mexico ; 4. Observations made in the British Possessions ; 

 5. The record of observations made by government and 

 other exploring expeditions ; 6. Copies of the observations 

 made under the direction of the Surgeon-General at the mili- 

 tary posts ; 7. Copies of the observations made at the ex- 

 pense of the States of New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylva- 

 nia, Maine, and Missouri ; and 8. A series of observations 

 from Bermuda and the West Indies. 1 It was intended to 

 systematically arrange and reduce these observations so that 

 the results might be summarized into general laws, but the 

 civil war put an end to such work, and ultimately the col- 

 lected material was transferred to the custody of what is now 

 the Weather Bureau. 



Certain special meteorological investigations were also car- 

 ried on in the Institution. During 1850 Espy conducted a 

 series of experiments on the variations of temperature pro- 

 duced by a sudden change in the density of atmospheric air. 

 The investigation was carried on in one of the rooms of the 

 Smithsonian Institution " with articles of apparatus belong- 

 ing to the collection which constituted the liberal donation 

 of Doctor Hare." 2 It was during the same year that a 

 special circular was issued to the observers asking for infor- 

 mation relating to the aurora, and a valuable collection of 

 returns was received, which were placed in the hands of Cap- 

 tain J. Henry Lefroy, then in charge of the meteorological 

 work in Toronto, to be " incorporated with observations 

 of a similar kind, which he had collected in the British 



1 " Smithsonian Report," 1857, page 65. 2 Ibidem, 1850, page 16. 



