sea; and since they could do no more, they expressed a hope that at some early day the plan might be so extended as to include the land also, and thus make the system universial. Since then Lieutenant Maury has repeatedly noticed the necessity of such co-operation with him by observers on shore, for the completion of this work. And in fact this necessity would be at once inferred from the slightest consideration by the most unpracticed reasoner.
"Of the surface of the earth, about one third is estimated to be land. This is divided by large bodies of water into continents and islands, some of them being of vast extent. Meteorological Phenomena of a highly interesting character, and having important bearings upon the industrial pursuits of man, have their origin sometimes at sea. They can be traced by the observer to the land, and there abandoned, notwithstanding the interest elicited, for the want of a proper system of co-operation. Similar phenomena may be discovered on the opposite side of island or continent; but whether a continuation of the effects of the same causes, or originating elsewhere, it becomes impossible to determine. The atmosphere covers the land as well as the ocean. On land its electrical condition, its temperature, its humidity, and its movements, are, doubtless, subject to more rapid and complicated changes than on the sea. The effects only of these influences can be noticed by the mariner. The originating causes are on shore. Hence to understand the phenomena of the atmosphere, or to profitably study its laws, it must be studied as a whole. Your Committee find this to be the opinion of the most distinguished meteorologists, and that in their judgment the time has come to subject the phenomena of the atmosphere by land and sea to the system of minute and rigid investigation.
"It is believed that the Superintendent of the Observatory can obtain the necessary co-operation to enable him to subject
