Mat 23, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



801 



tivities included meteorological work as a vol- 

 untary observer's station of the United States 

 Signal Service. The first rain-gauge vpas set 

 up on October 16, 1886, and the meteorological 

 work may be dated from that time. A synop- 

 sis of the results of the observations for the 

 twenty-five years ending July 1, 1912, has been 

 prepared by the director of the observatory 

 and is soon to be published in the University 

 of California Publications in Geography, 

 which will contain, among other geographic 

 papers, the results of the meteorological ob- 

 servations and climatic studies made at the 

 University of California. 



There is, perhaps, no type of work in which 

 so much depends upon the daily exacting at- 

 tention to detail as meteorology. An observa- 

 tion missed in this work is lost forever; an 

 approximate figure may be obtained and used 

 in the preparation of the averages, but the 

 greatest value of meteorological work depends 

 upon an unbroken and regular series of ob- 

 servations. Such a series is that which was 

 obtained by the Students' Observatory at 

 Berkeley during a period of nearly twenty-six 

 years. From the establishment of the meteoro- 

 logical station until September, 1892, the ob- 

 servations were made three times daily, at 

 Y A.M., 2 P.M. and 9 p.m., and the results sent 

 to the signal service at the end of each 

 month. From September 1, 1892, observations 

 have been made at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.. Pacific 

 Standard Time, the standard time in use in 

 the state of California. The transfer of the 

 meteorological work from the signal service 

 of the War Department to the Weather Bureau 

 of the United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture in no way broke the continuity of the 

 record at Berkeley; the relations which were 

 established with the signal service have been 

 continued with the Weather Bureau. 



The plans of the signal service for the work 

 of the voluntary observers proved to be some- 

 what more detailed than seemed desirable 

 under the conditions of the service and in the 

 early nineties a simplified form of report was 

 adopted. As far as the reports to the Weather 

 Bureau were concerned the University of 



California conformed to the new plan; but the 

 observations at Berkeley were maintained on 

 the same plan as before, as there was nothing 

 inconsistent with this in the new form, with 

 the result that the record kept by the univer- 

 sity is exceptionally complete. 



In addition to the reports which have been 

 sent to the Weather Bureau and printed in its 

 publications, the university has issued a 

 monthly meteorological synopsis of Berkeley 

 regularly since the beginning of 1887. Gen- 

 eral synopses have been prepared by Professor 

 Leuschner, the director of the Students' Ob- 

 servatory, and published at five-year inter- 

 vals, which have summarized the results, as 

 shown by the monthly synopses, up to the date 

 of the general summary. The monthly synop- 

 ses have been continued by the department of 

 geography in a somewhat enlarged form. It 

 is also proposed to publish an annual report 

 in conformity with the suggestion of the In- 

 ternational Meteorological Committee. The 

 original record is in such good condition that, 

 when it was decided to change the method of 

 compiling and stating some of the data in 

 order to bring the form of the synopsis into 

 accord with the better practise, this could be 

 easily accomplished without the use of ap- 

 proximations, and without breaking the series. 



There is no scientific work which will con- 

 tinue itseK for any considerable length of time 

 without the persistent efforts of men. The 

 meteorological work at Berkeley depends 

 largely upon the efforts of the directors and 

 the Students' Observatory. With the ad- 

 vice of the signal service and the approval 

 of the University of California Professor 

 Frank Soule, the first director, conceived 

 the idea of making meteorological obser- 

 vations at the observatory, and began the 

 work which has continued since that time. In 

 1892 he was succeeded as director by Professor 

 A. U. Leuschner, who has maintained the 

 record at its high standard for the past twenty 

 years. The actual observations have been 

 made by various members of the staff of the 

 observatory; and their faithful and punctual 

 performance of an exacting and often unin- 



