Increase Allen Laphatn. — WincJiell, 13 
for the next twenty-four hours, were based on reports from 
about thirty observers, rnany of them the volunteer observers 
of the Smithsonian Institution. Prof. Abbe states that it 
had been intended by some of the delegates from Cincinnati 
to the Richmond meeting of the National Board of Trade to 
bring the subject before that body, but that their action was 
anticipated by that of Hon. E. D. Holton, of Milwaukee, who 
presented a memorial drawn vip by Dr. I. A. Lapham. It is 
plain, therefore, that the idea which had been slumbering and 
waiting, found public sentiment ripe for the official sanction 
whenever the proper appliances were used to effect it. As in 
the case of many other great ideas that finally blossom out 
suddenly into fruitful actualities, that of weather forecasts 
was not the sole property of one man, still it can be legiti- 
mately claimed for Dr. Lapham, in the first instance, that he 
had an early share in the brotherhood of practical physicists 
who entertained the belief in the possibility of foretelling the 
weather by magnetic telegraph, and, in the second place, that 
he first successfully brought to bear those influences which 
induced Congress to approve and to authorize the National 
Weather Bureau of the United States. He, furthermore, was 
recognized as its responsible and influential instigator when 
he was called (Milwaukee Sentinel, Nov. 16, 1870,) to Wash- 
ington to take charge of it under Gen. Myer, a position which 
Prof. Abbe was called to in January, 1871.* Prof. Abbe's 
own statement justifies this, and lays at rest forever any doubt 
of Dr. Lapham's prior action. 
3. Archeological Work. 
"Dr. Lapham's most elaborate work, the one for which he is 
best known abroad, is his ' Antiquities of Wisconsin.' At an 
early daj T he became much interested in the aboriginal earth- 
works which abounded along the borders of our crystal lakes, 
and near the banks of many streams. He was the first to 
notice that many of these mounds are 'gigantic basso-relievos 
of men, beasts, birds and reptiles, all wrought with persever- 
ing labor, on the surf ace of the soil.' In 1830 he called at- 
tention through the newspapers, to a turtle-shaped mound at 
^Testimony before a Joint Commission, etc., on the scientific work 
of the Government, 49th Congress, 1st session. Misc. Doc6. 82, 1886, p. 
247. Compare also pp. 269-273, and 461-465. 
