conducted system of meteorological observations over the whole country would prove to be.
Accordingly, when he became Secretary of War he bore these circumstances in mind, and in 1819 that system of meteorological observations which has proved so beneficial to the whole country was inaugurated in the army, and from that day to this it has been carried on without interruption, and the results have been published from time to time in the Surgeon General's Office. In these observations the telegraph is not used at all, and the results, instead of being proclaimed on the instant, and announced so as to give warning of the coming of the storm, are frequently not published until years have elapsed. In short, by the army plan, the observations are made one year and discussed the next. The results, so far as the state of the weather on any particular day is concerned, are consequently retrospective, so to speak. They will tell on the 1st of January, for instance, what sort of weather you had on the lakes on the 1st day of December previous. But my lake plan proposes to warn you from observations made today as to the weather you may expect to-morrow, and then for the further investigation, of any particular phenomenon that may present itself, the lake plan proposes to refer to and consult the monthly records after they have been made and returned to Captain Meade, or elsewhere, from the observing stations. You observe, therefore, that the two plans, so far from superseding the one the other, or interfering with each other, are cooperative; and the fact that Captain Meade and those engaged with him on the survey of the lakes are so well provided with instruments, instead of being a reason for inaction on your part, is an additional reason why you should put your shoulder to the wheel with so much the more energy; for the assistance which such a corps of observers as he will bring into the field may render, will be of the greatest importance to the telegraphic plan.
I therefore hope, that so far from reading, in what Captain Meade is reported to have said in the Detroit papers, anything to discourage further action on your part, you will gather encouragement, and look upon him and his assistants
