SPECIAL DIRECTIONS 



TO THE 



METEOEOLOGICAL OBSERVERS 



OF THE 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



IN the reduction of the meteorological records presented to 

 this Institution, much additional labor has resulted from the 

 occasional omission in the registers, of some important facts, 

 and in a want of perfect uniformity in noting the phenomena. 

 We beg, therefore, to call attention to the following remarks: 



1. Failure to record latitude and longitude* name and station 

 of the observer, and date on each sheet ; the observer probably 

 supposing it sufficient to insert them once on the first sheet sent, 

 and so omitting them afterwards. This often renders it necessary 

 to search back through all the series of registers to some one 

 that contained them perhaps in a former year. They should be 

 inserted on every sheet. 



2. Designating the same place by different names, thus render- 

 ing it impossible to distinguish whether it were one place or two, 

 unless by accidentally noticing the similarity in the name of the 

 observer or in the latitude and longitude. Such changes of name 

 should be avoided when practicable, and when necessarily made 

 special attention should be called to it. 



3. Diversity in the mode of recording the Barometer, as follows: 



(a) Integers recorded in full, thus 29.35. (Tins is the 



proper mode.) 



(b) Integers omitted when the same as in the entry next 



above, thus 38. 



(c) Integers omitted when the same as in the entry next 



to the left. 



(43) 



