248 The National Geographic Magazine 



also been made by the Society to Cap- 

 tain Cagni, of the Duke of Abruzzi's 

 party, and to Mr. ly. Bernacchi and 

 Captain Colbeck for aid in Borchgre- 

 vink's South Polar Expedition. King 

 Edward VII has succeeded Queen Vic- 

 toria as Patron of the Society. 



Philippine "Weathei* Service. — The Phil- 

 ippine weather service has now scattered 

 throughout the archipelago some 20 tel- 

 egraphic stations from which advance 

 warnings of the approach of typhoons 

 can be wired to Manila. Before the 

 revolution of 1897 Spain had a number 

 of similar stations located at strategic 

 points, but when Dewey entered Manila 

 Bay not one remained outside of the city. 

 After the occupation of the islands by 

 the American Government plans were at 



once formed by the Chief of the U. S. 

 Weather Bureau, aided by Father Joseph 

 Algue, S. J., to reorganize and extend 

 the former service, and now that the 

 pacification of the islands is nearly se- 

 cured, these plans are rapidly becoming 

 realized. The Philippine service is in 

 charge of the Manila Observatory, with 

 Father Algue as director. It is sup- 

 ported by the funds of the Philippine 

 Government rather than those of the 

 United States, and is independent of 

 the U. S. Weather Bureau, but receives 

 the active cooperation and assistance 

 of the latter. As soon as enough of the 

 islands have been connected by cables 

 the U. S. Government will organize an 

 extensive system, and the Philippine 

 service will be incorporated under Fed- 

 eral direction. 



GEOGRAPHIC LITERATURE 



Report of the Chief of the "Weather 

 Bureau, I899-I900. U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. Pp.436. 1901. 

 Prof. Willis Iv. Moore gives a compre- 

 hensive statement of one year's work of 

 this great scientific branch of the Gov- 

 ernment. During the year many im- 

 portant advances were made. A station 

 established at Turks Island completed 

 the chain of stations extending from the 

 lycsser Antilles northwestward to Ber- 

 muda and the southeastern coast of the 

 United States. Plans were formed, and 

 have since been realized, for special 

 storm forecasts for the North Atlantic 

 Ocean, giving the wind force and wind 

 direction for the first three days of the 

 route of all outgoing steamers. Ex- 

 periments were made in wireless teleg- 

 raphy, and eminently satisfactory pro- 

 gress made in the investigation. A re- 

 duction to a homogeneous system of the 

 barometric observations taken by the 

 service during the past 30 years was un- 



dertaken. The total eclipse of May 28, 

 1900, was observed by Professors Bige- 

 low and Abbe, at Newberry, S. C, and 

 new information (to be published later) 

 obtained regarding the effect of solar 

 action upon the earth's atmosphere. 

 Arrangements for distributing forecasts 

 and warnings to vessels navigating the 

 Great lyakes were so perfected that each 

 of the 20,000 vessels that passed Detroit 

 received the latest weather news, and 

 also vessels leaving Chicago and the 

 Great lyake ports. Forecasts of cold 

 waves, of hurricanes, and of floods saved 

 millions of property. 



A valuable feature of the report are 

 tables, prepared by Prof. A. J. Henry, 

 giving the monthly mean, maximum, 

 and minimum temperature, pressure, 

 and moisture of 170 Weather Bureau 

 stations. The meteorological observa- 

 tions of Evelyn B. Baldwin during the 

 Wellm an Arctic Expedition of 1 898-' 99 

 complete the report. 



