48 



SCIENCE, 



[Vol. V., No. 102. 



congress to determine which department shall exer- 

 cise this necessary authority and control. 



The coast-survey was originally organized for the 

 purpose of constructing maps and charts of the coast 

 and harbors for the benefit of commerce and navi- 

 gation. Conflicting opinions respecting the proper 

 management of the survey led to the formation, in 

 1843, of a board of officers with the duty of re-orga- 

 nizing the survey. This board submitted a plan which 

 was enacted by congress into law, upon and under 

 which law the survey has hitherto been executed. 

 This plan provided for the co-operation of military 

 officers, naval officers, and civilians in the various 

 parts of the work. Under it the work of the coast- 

 survey has been continued to the present time. 



In recent times a great extension of the field of 

 operations of the survey has been made, apparently 

 looking to a triangulation covering the entire terri- 

 tory of the United States. The maps published 

 annually with the report of the survey enable us to 

 know the geodetic work it has executed. It appears, 

 from the maps accompanying the report of 1882, that 

 on June 30 of that year a chain of triangles had 

 been extended throughout the entire length of the 

 Atlantic and Gulf coasts, and throughout about half 

 the Pacific coast. Besides these coast-lines, exten- 

 sive regions in the interior are seen to be triangu- 

 lated. In the north-east, the triangulation covers the 

 greater part of the states of New Hampshire, Ver- 

 mont, and Massachusetts, about half of Connecticut, 

 and it also includes a considerable part of the state 

 of New York. 



The reconnoissance has extended westward from 

 the New-Jersey coast, so as to include the greater 

 part of the state of New Jersey, and a long strip in 

 Pennsylvania. From Pennsylvania, the extended 

 line of primary triangulation follows the Allegheny 

 Mountains into northern Alabama, and is now being 

 continued across the country to Memphis. 



A triangulation of the Mississippi River was ex- 

 tended from its mouth nearly to Memphis, where it 

 would meet the last-described chain of triangles. 

 The chain connecting the Atlantic and Pacific coasts 

 has been completed nearly across the state of Nevada, 

 and the reconnoissance includes nearly half of Utah 

 Territory. The line is also surveyed at various points 

 in Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois. Besides 

 all this, isolated regions in Wisconsin, Indiana, Illi- 

 nois, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, have been 

 reconnoitred by the coast and geodetic survey, in a 

 way indicative of a plan designed ultimately to cover 

 the entire territory. As its appropriations for some 

 years past have made provision for the collection of 

 data for a general map of the United States, we may 

 fairly regard the coast and geodetic survey as having 

 undertaken a trigonometric survey of the whole 

 United States. 



From the statement of the director of the geolo- 

 gical survey, we learn, that, under authority of the 

 annual appropriation bills to prepare a geological 

 map of the United States, that officer has parties 

 engaged in the trigonometric survey of the entire 

 country, which is to be sufficiently accurate for car- 



tographic purposes. It appears, therefore, that two 

 distinct and independent trigonometric surveys of 

 the United States, under two different departments 

 of the government, are now in process of execution. 



The meteorological work of the signal-service is 

 divisible into two distinct branches. The first and 

 by far the larger portion of the work is the collec- 

 tion of weather reports from stations in different 

 parts of the union, which are utilized in predicting 

 the probable weather during the twenty-four hours 

 succeeding. Connected with this work is the pub- 

 lication of weather maps, showing at a glance the 

 state of the weather over the entire country at cer- 

 tain moments of absolute time. At the school at 

 Fort Myer, observers and operators are trained for 

 this service. A very important part of its work is 

 the display of signals, and warnings of approaching 

 storms, frosts, and floods. 



The other branch of the meteorological service 

 appears in scientific discussions and investigations 

 having for their object the advance of the science of 

 meteorology. These researches are published under 

 the title, ' Professional papers of the signal-service,' 

 which papers consist of memoirs separately paged, 

 and numbered in the order of their issue. Your 

 committee is not informed of the separate expenses 

 of these two divisions of the signal-service, but has 

 no doubt that the expense of the second branch is 

 but a small fraction of that of the first. 



The signal-service also performs a military duty, 

 providing the material, and instructing soldiers and 

 officers to communicate between separate bodies of 

 troops by a system of day and night signals ; and it 

 also operates and repairs, and when necessary con- 

 structs, telegraph-lines for military purposes. The 

 appropriation for these military works and services 

 for the current year is five thousand dollars. In 

 the opinion of the committee, it is desirable that the 

 meteorological work of the weather bureau should be 

 under the general control of the commission proposed 

 later in this paper. 



The hydrographic office of the navy department 

 may be considered to date from the year 1848, when 

 the depot for charts and instruments for the navy, 

 authorized by an act approved in 1842, was estab- 

 lished. Under this act an observatory was estab- 

 lished, and was engaged in the double work of making 

 astronomical observations, correcting chronometers, 

 and of supplying charts to the navy ; the establish- 

 ment being officially styled ' the U. S. naval observa- 

 tory and hydrographic office.' In 1866 congress 

 authorized the establishment of a separate hydro- 

 graphic office, to be attached to the bureau of navi- 

 gation in the navy department, for the purpose of 

 supplying nautical publications and information, not 

 only to vessels of the United States, but to navigators 

 generally. Before that time the functions of the 

 office had been confined to the purchase and distribu- 

 tion of foreign charts. Under the new organization, 

 a drawing and engraving division was established, 

 which constructs charts of foreign coasts and seas for 

 distribution to vessels of the navy, and for sale, at 

 the cost of printing and paper, to navigators gener- 



