were from the manuscript notes of Dr. J. G. Cooper, of San Francisco, while the descriptions are principally from specimens in the Smithsonian collections. This volume, in regard to its typography, illustrations, and the character of its contents, does honor to the liberality of the State at whose expense it was published, as well as to the science of the country. Professor Baird has also continued his labors with Dr. Brewer, of Boston, on a work relative to the general ornithology of North America; in this he has been assisted by Mr. Robert Ridgeway, the zoologist of the exploration of the fortieth parallel under Clarence King. To the latter, free access has also been given, in the preparation of his report on the birds of Mr. King's survey, to all the ornithological specimens in the Smithsonian collections.

Mr, Meek, the palæontologist, has made a preliminary report on the fossils collected by Dr. Hayden in his survey of Wyoming and contiguous Territories, and prepared lists of the same, with descriptions of the new species. He has described and prepared drawings of a collection of cretaceous fossils, sent by Professor Mudge to the Institution, from Kansas. He has made, besides several preliminary examinations, a final report on the fossils collected by Mr. King in the survey of the fortieth parallel, with full descriptions and illustrations of all the new species. He has also investigated the invertebrate fossils collected by the geological survey of Ohio, and prepared descriptions of the new species for publication; made a preliminary report, with descriptions of some new species, on a collection of carboniferous fossils sent by Professor Stevenson from West Virginia; continued his work on the illustrations of the monograph of the palæontology of the Upper Missouri. He has also identified collections of fossils, received from time to time at the Smithsonian Institution from collectors in various parts of the country.

Mr. Dall has been engaged in collating the extensive collection of manuscript notes of the Hudson's Bay and other Arctic American collaborators with whom the institution has been in correspondence for more than fifteen years. The part of these notes which he has finished relates to ornithology, and comprises many thousand items descriptive of the habits, distribution, and numbers of the birds of the regions above referred to. These will be used by Professor Baird and Dr. Brewer in their work on the birds of North America. The manuscripts also contain notes relative to the mammals and other animals, as well as to the ethnology of the same regions. When all these are collated and published they will form an interesting contribution to existing knowledge of the natural productions and ethnology of the North American continent. Mr. Dall has also devoted considerable time to original investigations relative to the minute anatomy of the mollusca from specimens in the collections of the Institution. His principal labor, however, has been in the rearrangement of the very large series of shells from the west coast of America and of the North Pacific, including many types of the new

species of Gould, Carpenter, Cooper, Stearns, Pease, H. and A. Adams, &c. These have mostly passed through the hands of Dr. P. P. Carpenter, of Montreal, but still required to be placed in suitable trays, and provided with new labels and specially arranged for cabinet purposes. He has also had charge throughout most of the year of the record of additions to the museum, and the labeling of collections, especially those of ethnology and osteology.

Meteorology. The system of meteorology of the Institution has been kept up as usual during the past year. The number of observers reporting to the Institution during this period is 515, and to the Medical Department of the United States Army, to the records of which we have free access, 140. The value of these observations increases with the number of observers and the time for which the several series are continued. But observations, however long-continued and extensive, are comparatively of little value unless they are reduced and discussed; and these operations can only be performed at the expense of great labor, since thousands of figures have to be tabulated and subjected to various arithmetical processes in order to deduce the general results which constitute approximate scientific principles. As we have stated in previous reports, the discussion of the rain and temperature has been for some years in charge of Mr. Charles A. Schott. The results in regard to the rain have been printed, and will form a part of the Smithsonian Contributions for the year 1871. A general account of these results was given in the last report, but in this it may be further stated that the principal deductions are made from an original series of tables giving the monthly rain-fall from the earliest periods from all sources in the United States and adjacent countries down to 1867. From these general tables a series of consolidated tables of means for seasons and years, for the whole time, is deduced. It was thought advisable, on account of the great expense, to publish for the present the consolidated tables, and to retain the others for reference or to answer special inquiries in regard to the rain-fall of particular stations. The former have been kept up to date, all the new materials having been incorporated; and to extend the system a large number of rain-gauges have been distributed to different parts of the country, and especially to the western States.

The temperature records are still under investigation by Mr. Schott. The work was in part temporarily suspended during his absence in Europe as a member of the expedition for observing the total eclipse of last December. The following is a statement of the present condition of the discussion.

The collection of material has for the most part been completed down to the present time, and tables of hourly, bi-hourly, and semi-hourly observations of temperature have been prepared. From these have been deduced tables to be used for the correction of daily variations of temperature. The daily fluctuation of the atmospheric temperature

has been discussed, and tables giving the times of sunrise and sunset for stations between latitudes 23° and 60°, to be used for corrections of daily variation, have been computed. The annual fluctuations of temperature have been in part discussed, and the tables of maxima and minima are in an advanced state toward completion.

All the observations relative to the winds, made under the direction of the Institution, and under the Medical Department of the Army, and all those which have been collected from other sources, have been placed in charge of Professor J. H. Coffin, of Lafayette College, for reduction and discussion. It was first intended to limit the investigation to the winds of North America, but it has since been considered advisable to incorporate the whole in a memoir on the general direction of the winds of the globe. To defray the cost of the extra labor, other than that of Professor Coffin, in this investigation, an appropriation has been made from the income of the Institution. During the year, Professor Coffin has been pressing on this work, with a number of assistants, as rapidly as the means at his command and his time would allow.

The Smithsonian meteorological system was commenced in 1849, and has continued in operation until the present time. Its efforts have been directed in the line of supplementing and harmonizing other systems, of a more limited character, with that of the more general one of the Army of the United States, and in some measure with the system established in Canada. It has done good service to the cause of meteorology, 1, in inaugurating the system which has been in operation upward of twenty years; 2, in the introduction of improved instruments after discussion and experiments; 3, in preparing and publishing at its expense an extensive series of meteorological tables; 4, in reducing and discussing the meteorological material which could be obtained from all the records from the first settlement of the country till within a few years; 5, in being the first to show the practicability of telegraphic weather signals; 6, in publishing records and discussions made at its own expense, of the Arctic expeditions of Kane, Hayes, and McClintock; 7, in discussing and publishing a number of series of special records embracing periods of from twenty to fifty years in different sections of the United States, of great interest in determining secular changes of the climate; 8, in the publication of a series of memoirs on various meteorological phenomena, embracing observations and discussions of storms, tornadoes, meteors, auroras, &c.; 9, in a diffusion of a knowledge of meteorology through its extensive unpublished correspondence and its printed circulars. It has done all in this line which its limited means would permit, and has urged upon Congress the establishment, with adequate appropriation of funds, of a meteorological department under one comprehensive plan, in which the records should be sent to a central depot for reduction, discussion, and final publication.

An important step has been made toward this desirable object in the

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establishment, during the last year, by Congress, of a system of practical weather reports under the direction of the War Department, with ample means for the purchase standard instruments, the pay of assistants, and telegraphic dispatches. The results of this system in the way of prediction have been eminently successful, and have everywhere met with popular favor. The organization and administration of the system by General Myer, the director, has evinced great executive ability, and his wisdom has been shown in selecting Professor Abbe as his scientific" assistant. It should be recollected, however, that the principles employed in foretelling the weather are practical results previously arrived at by the investigations of men of abstract science founded on simultaneous records without the aid of telegraphic communication. For the discovery of the general laws of meteorological phenomena, simultaneous observations should be made over large portions of the earth, and the records of these collected at stated periods, say at the end of every month, at some central office, and submitted first to preliminary reduction, and finally to the critical study of men like Espy, Redfield, and others, fitted by education, experience, and mental peculiarities to deduce from them the required generalizations. I would therefore suggest that a still larger appropriation be made by Congress to the War Department for establishing, besides the reports for weather signals, a series of intermediate stations, also furnished with compared instruments, to record daily observations to be transmitted to Washington weekly or monthly, and also that provision be made for the support of a number of competent persons to carry on the reductions and prepare the results for publication.

It has been the policy of this Institution from the first to do nothing which can be done as well or better by other means, and in accordance with this policy the Institution would willingly relinquish the field of meteorology, which it has so long endeavored, though imperfectly, to cultivate, turning over to the Signal Office all the material which it has accumulated up to a given epoch. We would advise also a similar course to be pursued on the part of the Medical Department of the Army. All the deductions from the combined materials which have been collected up to the present time should be obtained and published, although since, they may be in many respects defective, they contain the essential element of long periods of meteorological changes and a new era commence with more precise instruments and improved methods of observation. From such a system, however perfect it may be, immediate results are not to be expected. New and important deductions can scarcely be obtained until after a continuance of the system for several years, as, for example, the accurate determination of the periodicity which probably exists in regard to the droughts of the western coast.

Before closing this report it is proper that I should refer to a resolution adopted by your honorable board at its last session, granting me leave of absence to visit Europe to confer with savans and societies relative to the Institution, and making provision for the payment of my expenses. The presentation of this proposition was entirely without my knowledge, but I need scarcely say that its unanimous adoption was highly gratifying to my feelings, and that I availed myself of the privilege it offered with a grateful appreciation of the kindness intended.

I sailed from New York on the 1st of June, returning, after an absence of four and a half months, much improved in health and with impressions, as to science and education in the Old World, which may be of value in directing the affairs of the Institution. Although limited as to time, and my plans interfered with somewhat by the war, I visited England, Ireland, Scotland, Belgium, parts of Germany and France. But deferring, for the present, an account of my travels and the observations connected with them, I will merely state that, as your representative, I was everywhere kindly received, and highly gratified with the commendations bestowed on the character and operations of the Institution intrusted to your care.

Respectfully submitted.

JANUARY, 1871.

JOSEPH HENRY.