EEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 33 



together with tables of important atmospheric changes, and notices 

 of auroras, meteors, and other periodical phenomena. The publica- 

 tion has been received with much favor by agriculturists, and is 

 regarded with great interest by the observers, who are thus fur- 

 nished promptly with a general summary of the principal features 

 of the meteorology of each month in all parts of the country, with 

 which they can compare their own observations. 



In view of the value of the information thus furnished by the 

 Institution, it is hoped that the previous appropriation will be 

 renewed, and that the reductions which have been discontinued for 

 the last four years may be resumed. 



The second volume of the Results of Meteorological Observations 

 made for the Institution, from 1854 to 1859, and reduced by Professor 

 Coffin, is still in the press, its completion being delayed by the great 

 pressure, upon the public printing office, of government work relative 

 to the war. 



We are indebted to the courtesy of Captain (now General) George 

 G. Meade, of the topographical engineers, superintendent of the 

 survey of the north and northwestern lakes, and of his successor in 

 office, Lieutenant Colonel J. D. Graham, for a continuation of the 

 favor formerly extended to the Institution in furnishing us with copies 

 of the meteorological observations made at the different stations estab- 

 lished for the survey. These records are very valuable, being made 

 with full sets of instruments and at important places. They em- 

 brace observations made three times a day, at the same hours with 

 the Smithsonian system, 7 a. m. and 2 and 9 p. m., and at ten sta- 

 tions, extending from Superior City in the State of Wisconsin, at the 

 western extremity of Lake Superior, to Sackett's Harbor in New 

 York, on the east end of Lake Ontario. 



The Bureau of Medicine and Surgery of the Navy Department also 

 continues to furnish us with the meteorological records kept at the 

 naval hospitals at Chelsea, New York, and Philadelphia. 



For several years previous to the commencement of the war a large 

 map was exhibited in the Smithsonian Institution on which was daily 

 represented the direction of the wind and face of the sky over the 

 greater portion of the United States; and in previous reports we have 

 frequently called attention to the fact that a properly organized sys- 

 tem for giving daily or half daily changes of the weathGr in distant 

 parts of the United States would be of great practical importance to 

 the shipping interests of the country; we have also stated the fact 

 that we are much more favorably situated for predicting the coming 

 3 s / 



