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investors and settlers against the too glowing- 

 accounts, which amounted to virtual misrepre- 

 sentation, on the part of the employees of the 

 Northern Pacific railroad. His compilation of 

 cKmatological data, and his statement of personal 

 experience based on long residence in that region, 

 largely contributed to prevent blind emigration 

 into an inhospitable country, while they doubtless 

 also contributed to direct attention to the really 

 valuable portions of our north-west territory, so 

 that the permanent development of that portion 

 of the United States has been furthered by his 

 action. It was, however, at the time, on his part 

 a very characteristic, outspoken exj)osition of 

 what seemed to him a fraud and imposition, 

 perpetrated by unscrupulous financiers upon for- 

 eign immigrants and over-confiding settlers and 

 investors. 



During his connection with the signal office. 

 General Hazen frequently took occasion to show 

 his appreciation of the fact that the weather-pre- 

 dictions were essentially not a matter of mere 

 military routine, but that in all departments the 

 office had need of the work of specially trained 

 experts ; that it was a mistake to shut one's eyes 

 to the fact that in a matter of applied science, like 

 this, some of those whom the scientific world 

 recognizes as meteorologists and physicists must 

 be employed, and be required to keep the chief 

 fully informed of the progress of science. Per- 

 haps this is best exemplified by a quotation from 

 his letter of March 24, 1886, addressed to a com- 

 mittee of the house, on expenditures of the war 

 department: "At the beginning of the work of 

 the signal service, the duty of giving notice of the 

 approach and force of storms and floods, for the 

 benefit of commerce and agriculture throughout 

 the United States, implied that the notices should 

 be correct, reliable, and timely, as none others 

 could possibly be of benefit ; it was therefore ab- 

 solutely necessary to provide for the caref al study 

 of the atmosphere. On my accession, I found 

 every evidence from popular criticism that still 

 further progress in weather-predictions was ex- 

 pected. I therefore emphasized especially the 

 necessity of the study of the instruments and 

 methods of observing, and the investigation of the 

 laws of the changes going on in the atmosphere. 

 ... It is evident by these successive steps, that, 

 in addition to knowledge gained for current work, 

 the office is powerfully contributing towards the es- 

 tablishment of a deductive science of meteorology, 

 which will eventually give us a solid, rational 

 basis for predictions, thereby improving on the 

 empirical rules by which predictions have gen- 

 erally been made hitherto." And he adds that he 

 was led more especially to assist in the researches 



on the sun's heat by reason of the encouragement 

 given him by the late President Garfield, whose 

 "last words to me were, 'Give both hands of 

 fellowship and aid to scientific men.' " 



As a further illustration of General Hazen's 

 appreciation of the scientific needs of the office, 

 must be noted his appointment of Prof. William 

 Ferrel as meteorologist, and of Prof. T. C. Men- 

 denhall as electrician : to the latter, all matters re- 

 lating to standards, instruments, and instrumental 

 research were also committed. Nor did he stop 

 here, but, by appointing several younger men to 

 positions as junior professors, he largely increased 

 the amount of study and research that the office 

 was able to perform ; and by publishing a series 

 of j)rofessional papers and smaller notes, he took 

 the final steps necessary to stimulate every man 

 to do his best. 



Laboring in this same direction, he sought to 

 elevate the intelligence and scientific training of 

 the signal corps proper, by enlisting college grad- 

 uates as far as possible, by extending the course of 

 instruction for observers, and by establishing a 

 course of higher instruction for commissioned 

 officers. 



In still another dnection General Hazen showed 

 his affiliation with scientific interests ; namely, by 

 his desire to conform as thoroughly as possible to 

 the recommendations of the international meteor- 

 ological conferences. These recommendations, as 

 soon as received in the printed minutes of the con- 

 ferences, were, by General Hazen's orders, carefully 

 examined, and instructions at once prepared cal- 

 culated to introduce methods of observation and 

 publication in conformity with the recommenda- 

 tions of the leading meteorologists of the world. 



Among the items specially noteworthy, wherein 

 General Hazen developed new paths of activity 

 for this service, may be mentioned the study of 

 local thunder-storms and tornadoes, which were 

 assigned respectively to Prof. H. A. Hazen and 

 Lieut. J. P. Finley so far as a collection of gen- 

 eral statistics is concerned, and to Professor 

 Mendenhall so far as concerns the electrical 

 phenomena proper. The study of atmospheric 

 electricity was especially authorized in 1884, 

 by an order of the secretary of war, trans- 

 mitting the resolutions of the international electri- 

 cal conference held in Paris the preceding year. 

 After full consultations with numerous electri- 

 cians throughout the country. General Hazen de- 

 cided that a daily map of electric potential, show- 

 ing lines of equipotential, similar to the isobaro- 

 metric lines, offered hopeful prospect of leading 

 eventually to a method of predicting the formation 

 and motion of thunder-storms and tornadoes. But 

 the methods of observation and the apparatus 



