1855.] 



REPORT ON MAJOR LAUHLAN'S SUPPLEMENTARY REMARKS. 



409 



limited number of observers can be supported, it will be well 

 to distribute these as uniformly over the space as may be 

 practicable. It would be desirable that no two be further apart 

 than 100 miles. At present, without a critical examination of 

 the map I am unable to suggest any place of paramount 

 importance. 



4th. In regard to your third question: — " WJiat are the 

 instruments now in general use throughout the United States; 

 hy ivhom made and adjusted, and their resj)ectioe jprices; and 

 what is the average expense to the puhlic at each Station?" 

 I have to inform you that the instruments now in use through- ■ 

 out the United States are the Barometer, Thermometer, 

 Psychrometer, Wind vane and Rain gauge, made under the 

 direction of the Smithsonian Institute, by James G-reen, 422 

 Broadway, New York. They are compared with standards 

 from London and Paris. The Barometer is furnished with an 

 adjustable cistern, and the scale is so arranged as to eliminate 

 the necessity of a correction for capillarity, and the instruments 

 are reliable, and will serve for ascertaining absolute quantities 

 as well as for indicating relative atmospheric changes. The 

 prices are — for a barometer, $35 ; thermometer, §5 ; p-sychro- 

 metei', SG75; rain gauge, 83. All the observations made 

 under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution are volun- 

 tary and gratuitous ; the observers under the direction of the 

 State of New Y^ork receive §50 per annum ; and those for the 

 State of Massachusetts, §25. 



5th. In answers to : — "are there rcgidar 2i^'intcd forms of 

 Registry, common to all, and camve he furnished xoith copies?" 

 The Smithsonian Institute prepares and distributes regularly 

 printed forms of registry, which are used by observers generally 

 throughout the United States, which might be copied for dis- 

 tribution by the Canadian Institute. 



6th. In answer to the fifth inquiry : — " Are there any 

 printed instructions for observing, with the view of ensuring a 

 thorough uniformity with the times, method, and language 

 of registration throughout the whole chain of operations ? ' 

 Our edition of instructions to observers is exhausted, but 

 another will be published for distribution at the beginning of 

 the year. A new edition is also in the hands of the Stereo- 

 typers of the tables necessary for reduction. 



7th. Besides operations with meteorological instruments, 

 much valuable information may be derived from the registra- 

 tion of periodical phenomena, such as the first appearance of 

 different animals, the flowering and maturing of different plants. 

 Blank forms for registering those have also been prepared by 

 this Institution. 



Accompanying this, we send you a copy of the 7th and Sth 

 Report of the Smithsonian Institution, from which much addi- 

 tional information may he obtained in regard to our meteorolo- 

 gical system. 



I remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 



(Signed) . JOSEPH HENRY, 



Secretary of the Smithsoniaii Institute. 



To Major Laehlan, Montreal. 



REPORT OF EDITING COMMITTEE ON MAJOR LACULAN'S 

 SUPPLEMENTARY REMARKS. 



The Editing Committee, to whom Major Lachlan's " Sup- 

 plementary Remarks in behalf of the Establishment of a Pro- 

 vincial System of Meteorological Observations," were referred, 

 beg to report, that, while appreciating the persevering zeal of 

 the author, his communication appears to them calculated to 

 3 



convey an erroneous and unjust impression of what has been 

 done, and is now doing, in Canada ; as well as of the conduct 

 of the Institute in declining to adopt his recommendation of an 

 immediate application to Parliament, for a grant of money, to 

 establish a Provincial System of Observation. The Institute 

 was aware that already, by Act of Parliament, this object had, 

 in great part, been attained by a provision that 31eteorological 

 Observations should be regularly made at the various Grammar 

 Schools in the Upper Province, and that the organizatian of this 

 system was satisfactorily in progress. "When completed, the 

 Institute might be prepared to take steps for the establishment 

 of supplementary stations, where needed ; but meanwhile, the 

 application urged by Major Lachlan seemed unnecessary, and, 

 indeed, impracticable, till the number of such supplementary 

 stations could be ascertained. The Institute would also have 

 been at a loss to name the sum to be applied for from Gov- 

 ernment, on account of the difiSculty of estimating one most 

 important and indispensable item, which would appear to have 

 been entirely overlooked by Major Lachlan, viz., the provision 

 of a staff of assistants for the purpose of abstracting, reducing, 

 and preparing for publication, the returns transmitted from the 

 different stations. Information on this head was sought in vain 

 from the experience of the system in the United States, super- 

 intended by the Smithsonian Institution. The various details 

 of that system, quoted in Major Lachlan's communication, were 

 well known to members of the Institute interested in this 

 subject; but with regard to this item — the most important of 

 all — no information was obtained from the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, nor could be, since it is only within the last few weeks 

 that that body has announced that their arrangements for this 

 purpose have at length been completed. 



It appears that the subject of Meteorological Observations in 

 Canada, so fiir from being neglected, is at present receiving a 

 very considerable share of attention. Only a few months have 

 elapsed since arrangements were completed for placing the 

 Magnetic and Meteorological Observatory on the foundation of 

 Toronto University, and others are under consideration, and 

 have already received the sanction of his Excellency the Gov- 

 ernor-General, for providing a staff of educated observers, from 

 the same fund, to be attached to the Observatory as Univei-sity 

 Scholars. In connexion with this, and in furtherance of the 

 same objects, by a statute of the Council of University College, 

 a Chair of Bleteorology has been established in that Institution, 

 and the new Professor, G. T. Kingston, Esq., M.A., will deliver 

 his first course of lectures during the present term, specially 

 designed for training Grammar School Teachers, the Pupil- 

 Teachers of the Normal School, and others, in the use of the 

 requisite instruments, and the scientific application of the results 

 aimed at in such observations. 



Finally, the correspondence between Lieut.-Col. Lefroy and 

 the Rev. Dr. Ryerson, in reference to the immediate establish- 

 ment of thirty stations in Upper Canada, in connection with 

 the Grammar Schools, is in the pre.«s, and will be published in 

 a few weeks ; and it appears to the Committee, that if anything 

 further is to be done at present, the Institute should limit it.sclf 

 to recommending to the Government the application of the .same 

 principle in relation to the Granunar Schools and other educa- 

 tional Institutions of Lower Canada, which is now being brought 

 into successful operation in this .section of the Province. 



In carrying out the plans already matured or projected, the 

 Committee beg leave to expre.'^s their opinion that the duties 

 of the Canadian Institute should be strictly limited, as hereto- 

 fore, to publishing the Observations. The idea of a voluntary 

 association, constituted like the Canadian Institute, undertdiiog 



