36 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



by Lieutenant Couch, late of the United States army ; and I am 

 happy to state to the Board that these observations are at present in 

 the process of revision, and that they will be published, at least in 

 part, if not entirely, during the next year. The Institution is now 

 also prepared to publish a number of series of observations continued 

 for considerable periods of time, which will be of importance in the 

 comparison of the weather of different years. 



The great object in view in regard to this branch of science is to 

 furnish materials which all who are so disposed may study, and from 

 which deductions may be made as to the peculiarities of our climate, 

 or the general meteorological phenomena of the globe. It is highly 

 desirable that as many minds as possible should be employed on this 

 subject, and it is consequently important that the greatest procurable 

 amount of authentic data should be furnished to them as the basis of 

 their investigations. The continent of North America presents a field 

 of peculiar interest in regard to geography, geology, botany, zoology, 

 and meteorology,, which has been cultivated more industriously since 

 the establishment of this Institution than at any former period ; and 

 now, with the proper co-operation of the medical department of the 

 army, by means of observations made at the different military posts on 

 the west, the system about to be established in Canada on the north, 

 and that of the Smithsonian and Patent Office on the east, with that 

 of the National Observatory on the sea surrounding our coast, more 

 extended and accurate means than were ever before in existence will be 

 offered for the solution of some of the most interesting problems of 

 climatology. In order, however, to full success in this enterprise, all 

 considerations of personal or institutional aggrandizement should be 

 entirely discarded, and each party be impelled alone by the desire to 

 advance as much as is in its power the cause of truth. The policy of 

 this institution has ever been of a character as liberal as its means 

 would permit, and we trust it will not cease to extend a generous co- 

 operation to every well devised plan intended to promote knowledge. 



We cannot hold out the idea that great results are at once to be 

 obtained for the improvement of agriculture, and the promotion of 

 health and comfort, by a system of meteorological investigation. 

 There are no royal roads to knowledge, and we can only advance to 

 new and important truths along the rugged path of experience, guided 

 by cautious induction. We cannot promise to the farmer any great 

 reduction in the time of the growth of his crops, or the means of pre- 



