KITE WORK OF THE WEATHER BUREAU 55 



dering the western channels much deeper than the eastern. Toward 

 the close of the Pliocene there began over this region a process of 

 elevation, which, though general over the entire region, was greatest 

 along a line approximating that of the axis of the eastern lateral range 

 of the Andes, and was also greater, over northern than over southern 

 Patagonia. As the elevation proceeded the general surface of the 

 land would be brought above water level, while the longitudinal and 

 transverse valleys would remain submerged and appear respectively 

 as channels from the Pacific and as straits connecting the two oceans. 

 This condition may be termed the first stage in the process of eleva- 

 tion and is now seen in the Magellan Strait. 



After a time a second stage would be rea.ched, in which the trans- 

 verse valle3''s would no longer appear as straits, but as land valleys, 

 while the channel of the eastern longitudinal valle}'^ would be broken 

 up into a series of fiords extending inland from the continuous chan- 

 nels of the deeper Avestern longitudinal valley. This second stage is 

 now seen in the region lying between the Strait of Magellan on the 

 south and Lake Argentina on the north. 



A third stage appears when the amount of elevation accomplished 

 is sufficient to sever the connection existing between the east and west 

 longitudinal valle3'S and reduce the fiords entering the eastern valley 

 to a series of lakes discharging their waters by rivers into the chan- 

 nels of the western valle}'', still submerged beneath the sea. This 

 third stage is seen in the region north of Lake Argentina, while a 

 fourth stage, in which the bottom of the western longitudinal valle}' 

 is brought above water level, appears in e:;?treme northern Patagonia 

 and the region to the northward, where it embraces the principal 

 agricultural lands of Chile. 



KITE WORK OF THE WEATHER BUREAU* 

 Py H. C. FuANKKM ii:m), 



U. S. Wt'dllu'v J>i(rr(tii 



As early as the year LSU-"), Prof. Willis L. Moore, (.'hief of the U. S. 

 M'eather liureau, determined to undertake at the (earliest practicable 

 moment a study of the meteorological conditions (existing in the free 

 air ()V(;r the United States, the data to be olitained from auloniaticnlly 



