around the earth at a fixed instant of time; as well as questions of climatology and others bearing upon the prediction of weather-changes far in advance of the time at which these changes happen, or queries as to the character of coming seasons, may be settled." If the Signal Service undertook no other duty, but, discarding prognostications, limited its scope of researches to this international collection of materials for the construction of the sciences of meteorology and climatology, it is not too much to say that the harvest of observational data thus garnered would ultimately be worth all the labor and expense the Service has cost the Government. But, to secure such results, it can not be too widely or urgently insisted on that navigators, ship-owners, steamship companies, and all naval officers should use their earnest efforts and influence to obtain simultaneous weather-reports from all sea-going steamers and sailing vessels. The ablest scientific journal of Great Britain, "Nature," recently said that it "earnestly hopes that the navies and the mercantile vessels of all nations will soon join in carrying out this magnificent scheme of observations, originated by the Americans in 1873, and since then further developed and carried on by them with the greatest ability and success." Sentiments similar in effect were expressed at the International Meteorological Congress convened in Rome, Italy, in April, 1879.

The Coast Signal Service is another important arm of the organization. By act of Congress, the Secretary of War was authorized to establish signal stations at the lighthouses and life-saving stations on the lakes and seacoasts, and to connect these signal stations with telegraph-lines, to be constructed, maintained, and worked under the direction of the Chief Signal Officer of the Army; and the use made of the life-saving stations is subject to such regulations as are fixed upon by the Chief Signal Officer, the Secretary of War, and the Secretary of the Treasury. By this coöperative arrangement, the Signal Service has become a valuable if not an indispensable auxiliary to the sister services with which it connects, and shares very materially in the labors and responsibilities especially of the Life-Saving Service.

The coast signal stations aim to warn vessels within signaling distance of the approach of storms, and to give the life-saving stations quick notice of marine disasters calling for rescue, as also to furnish any intelligence to the latter, or to the lighthouses, which may insure their more efficient working. Connected by wire or submarine cable, as all the signal stations on the coast are, from Sandy Hook, N. J., to Smithville, N. C., and connected similarly with the office of the Chief Signal Officer at Washington, whence they are kept advised of any change in the meteorological status, they are thus enabled, from their full ocean view, to communicate directly any warnings from

the Chief Signal Officer to passing ships, or to convey to him any facts which may be of use to the Washington office. The telegraphic wires connect each station with the War Department. The weather reports and observations on the indications of the sea thus obtained are often of the greatest value to the Washington office in its work of preannouncing the force, direction, and velocity of the great hurricanes from the West Indies, which impinge upon our Atlantic seaboard and sweep the sail-whitened waters on the eastern side of the United States.

As an illustration of this, it may suffice to note the ocean conditions which the Coast Signal Service telegraphs to the Chief Signal Office thrice daily, and oftener if need be. It has long been known by meteorologists that marine cyclones foreannounce their movements by a storm-wave formed in the central part of the barometric depression, where, the attenuation of the atmosphere being much greater than on the outer circles, the circumferential pressure serves to head up the water of the sea. "When living on the Bermuda Islands," says General Reid, the eminent investigator of storm-phenomena, "I was frequently interested by observing the change of direction in the surf beating against their shores. A coming storm would roll its undulations so as to break upon the south and southwest side of these Atlantic islands; and, as gales proceeded northward, the sea was seen breaking on their northern reefs." The "cyclone-rollers," as Piddington observed, may be "felt at a great distance from storms"; and, as he shows, even a ship far out at sea, if her commander will carefully note the swell of the ocean, may be forewarned of an approaching gale. Both of these investigators give abundant evidence that the peculiar ocean-swell "is often felt at 10° or 15° (600 to 900 miles) of distance" from the tempest. In the summer of 1873, when the great August hurricane which so furiously assailed and wrecked several hundred sail, was still passing over the Bermudas, its long dead swell was outrunning its center by 600 miles, driving in the bathers at Long Branch and pouring into New York Bay. The steamer Albe marle encountered its forerunning wave on her voyage from Halifax to the Bermudas; and, though the morning was fair, suspecting danger, the vessel was hove to for a few hours to examine the swell. Concluding that the hurricane was advancing directly upon him, her captain changed his course from southerly to westerly, and by a slight détour eluded the gale. As one by one, yet all independently, the coast signal observers on any day telegraph to the central office the same significant tidings of the ocean-indications of an Atlantic gale-the intensity and direction of the swelltheir concurrent observations often present unmistakable proofs of the presence, course, and progressive rate of these menacing meteors. The intelligence thus afforded is indispen