560 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. DECEMBER, 1898
or partly-cloudy day. On August 16, a t Orca, I observed snow-
flakes flying. Little or no systematic attention is given to
gardening in the Sound. At Orca a small garden of radishes,
turnips, and like root crops had been planted, but the yield
was miserably poor. A t Kadiak the gardens in the early
part of July were in a very flourishing condition ; potatoes
and other vegetables had a splendid growth. Kadiak Island
and the other islands of that groupwere covered waist deep
with luxuriant grasses and flowers of many varieties. The
traveler is struck with amazement a t the floral wenlth of
that country, which, though comparatively treeless, offers
thousands of niiles of pasture unsurpassed by any State in
the Union. The plateaus of Cooks Inlet, too, were covered
with long, rich grasses, many k i d s of which make excellent
food for cattle. A t Kenai, KussiloR, Ninilchek, Anchor Point,
and Homer, all on the east side of the Inlet, gardens had been
planted, and a t each place the yield was good, but was said
to be poorer than usual, on account of the unfnvorable weather
during the latter part of the summer. At Kenai and Ninil-
chek I saw cattle which had probably never tasted grain : yet
they were fat and healthy.
The woods and meadows of that country abound with her-
ries of many varieties, all having an excellent flavor. Fuel,
both coal and wood, can be had without asking, and fish and
game are abundant. The soil is easily clenred, yields quickly
and bountifully, with a minimum amount of labor, and there
are few or no harmful vegetable insects. During a d a y of
several weeks in the Inlet this past summer I did not once
observe a higher hirometer reading than 29.92 inches, while
outside the Inlet I frequently observed readiugs of 30.00 and
higher. The winds were either southwest or northeast, up
or down the Inlet. The few opportunities I had for observing
the movement of cirrus clouds showed them as coming from
the southwest.
The chief hindrance to the early and thorough settlement
of that country appears to be its great distance from markets,
its isolation during a large part of the year, and the moequi-
toes and sand flies during the summer months; mosquitoes
are a pest beyond description. One who has never been in
the country can form no idea of the annoyance they cause,
both night and day. Of course, with the clearing of the land
this pest would disappear to a great extent.
At Tyoonok and Ladds, on the west side, gardening is more
extensively engaged in than a t any other point in the Inlet.
It was said that usually the potato crop is ripe by the 4th of
July, and that it yields well. This gear the crop was not of
eatable size by the first of August, and did not promise to be
a good one. Rains and cloudy weather prevailed throughout
July and August, and frequently the days were raw and cold.
At Coal Harbor, 011 Unga Island, about three hundred
miles southwest of Kadiak, the voluntary observer’s report
for August showed 2.25 inches of rainfall, with 3 clear or
partly cloudy days, and 28 cloudy and rainy days. The range
of temperature was from 43O to 60°. For September the same
observer reported 1.02 inch of rninfall, with 7 clear, 8 partly
cloudy, and 15 cloudy and rainy days. Maximum temperature,
6 6 O on the 12th ; minimum, 34O on the 27th a d 28th Records
from that station for previous months have uot been received.
The only meteorological records received from the interior
mere those from Holy Cross Mission (Kosereffsky) on the
Yukon. At that place 33 inches of snow lay upon the ground
a t the close of April. I n May the total precipitation was
0.20 inch, with 5 clear, 16 partly cloudy, and 10 cloudy and
rainy days. The highest temperature for the month was 5 8 O
on the 28th ; the lowest, 1 5 O on the 9th. For June the rain-
fall was 2.09 inches, with 8 clear, 14 partly cloudy, a d 8
cloudy and rainy days. Maximum temperature, 76c on the
1 l t h ; minimum, 53O on the 3d, with average maximum and
minimum of Cis0 a d 45O, respectively. During July 3.34
inches of rain fell. There were 9 clear, 7 partly cloudy, and
15 cloudy or rainy days. Highest temperature, SOo on the
15th; lowest, 40° on the 29th. Average maximum, 6 5 O ;
minimum, 48O. For August the record gives 2.96 inches of
rainfall, with 1 clear, 8 partly cloudy, and 22 cloudy or rainy
days. Maximum temperature, 6So on the 32d ; minimum,
37O on the 7th and 30th, with averages of 6l0 and 47O respect-
ively. For September 2.43 inches of rnin were reported.
Clenr days, 3 ; partly cloudy, 11 ; cloudy, 16. The first snow
of the season fell on the 21st. Maximum temperature for the
month, 60G on the 1st; minimum, 2 5 O on the 23d and 24th.
NOTES BY THE EDITOR.
CAPT. MICHAEL MAHANY.
.A large majority of the observers and officials of the Weather
Bureau will, with regret, learu of the death of Captain Ma-
hany a t Washington, on February 3, 1899. For many pears
during the existence of the school of instruction in signaling
and meteorology, a t Fort Myer (formerly Fort Whipple),
Va., Captain Mahany was the first sergeant, and as such, came
into intimate daily contact with every member of the succes-
sive classes under instruction. His special attention was
given to the care of the men, and their quarters and their
instruction in military drill and signaling. He was em-
phatically and naturally a soldier, and was an excellent drill-
master ; although a strict disciplinarian, he was thoroughly
faithful to the best interests of those entrusted to his care,
and no superior officer ever thought of replacing him by
another. When the meteorological, was separat,ed from the
military, service, Captain Mahany cast his lot in with the
former, and when Professor Moore was appointed Chief of
the Weather Bureau, he soon showed his appreciation of the
merits of his former drillmaster by recommending him for
appointment to the very responsible position of Captain of
the Watch, which position he filled with marked acceptability.
He will be sadly missed by every one. He was a prominent
member of ‘‘ The Old Guard,” and was buried a t Arlington
with military honors.
-0-
REDUCTION TO STANDARD GRAVITP.
In the MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW for July, page 314, we
have explained the process by which we pass from crude bar-
ometric readings a t any station to the true atmospheric pres-
sure expressed either in inches, as the height of a column of
mercury or, still better, in pounds to the square inch, as pres-
sures are more appropriately measured. One step in this
process consists in applying the reduction to standard gravity.
Now, the reduction to standard temperature has been acceded
to and practiced for the past sixty years; but the reduction
to standard gravity has been applied only in special casea,
and its general application has been delayed until there could
be a concert of action among all nations. Its importance and
magnitude has been recognized ever since Laplace published
his MBcanique CBleste. The international congresses of
Vienna, 1873; Rome, 1878; Munich, 1891; as well as the
Permanent International Meteorological Committee, have
DECEMBER, 1898. MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. 66 1
expressed themselves in no uncertain terms to the effect that,
for general meteorological purposes, the reduction to standard
gravity is imperative, and that i t should be uniformly adopted
by all national services and not later than January 1, 1901.
I n fact, the Polar Conference had already urged this step in
1884 as imperative even a t that time, and the Chief Signal
Officer, General Hazen, acting promptly upon this request,
introduced this correction with the monthly constants for
January, 1885, and continued it, in corinection with Ferrel's
reduction to sea level, on Aagust 1, 1886 ; but, on January 1,
1888, this improvement was abandoned in order to await
the general action of all national services. The recent exten-
sion of the service of the Weather Bureau so that our daily
weather maps now comprehend the region from latitude IOo
to 5 5 O north, brings the importance of the gravity question
into great prominence, and by recent instructions, No. 93,
dated October 19, the correction will be applied to all mercu-
rial barometers of the Weather Burem on and after January
1, 1899. The correction will be applied a t the same time
with those for temperature and other instrumental errors,
thus giving first the correct pressure in standard inches of
mercury for the locality of the barometer. This local pres-
sure is then reduced to sea level or to any other desired alti-
tude, and the new pressures thus obtained will also be es-
pressed in terms of the recognized international standards.
INSTRUCTIONB So. 92, 1S9S.
Owing to the recent extensions of the Weather Bureau in the West Indies and along the South American coast, the whole territory now reporting barometric pressures embraces a wide range of latitude, and the barometric readings corrected for temperature and instrumental error only, at the extremes, are widely tliscurrlant, owing to variations in the force of gravity with latitude. Therefore, on and after January
1, 1899, the appropriate correction for gravity will be applied to all barometric readings. This correction is nearly constant at any one
station, and is given in Table 11, page 66 of Circular F, Instrument Room. The gravity correction to be used at a station will be incor- porated with the correction for instrumental error and capillarity, and a correction card giving the appropriate correction for each instrument will be furnished by the Instrument Division. The following example will elucidate the complete correction of the barometric reading :
Attached thermometer 76.5' ; observed bnrometei read-
Correction for gravity ,instrumental error, and capillarity- --I). 066
lug ........................................... 20.2s;
Correction for tempeiature.. ........................ --O. 131
--
Total correction ............................ -0.197
Corrected reading .............................. 30.090
The total correction, ascertained as shown above, will be entered on Form No. 1001-Met'l in the column in which the correction for tem- perature has been recorded heretofore. Observers may find it conveni- ent to compute a small station table, by combining once for all the gravity and instrumental error corrections with t,hose for temperature, thus giving the total correction for the ordinary temperatures and pres- sure that prevail at their stations. A new table must be prepared,
however, whenever a new correction for instrumental error is em-
plo ed. &e corrected reading, derived as above, is a standard measure of atmospheric pressure, and 16 perfectly com arable with similarly cor- rected readings macle at any place the wor1ct)over.
It takes a long time to overcome the conservatism of the
practical world. Men are so accustomed to think in the
terms taught them in childhood that even after they have
long since perceived that those terms have acquired a new
significance and ought to be expressed by new words, or new
standards, they still hold on to the old ones.
They may know that the barometer is affected by the tem-
perature of its scale and its mercury, and that both the
atmospheric pressure and the weight of the column of mer-
cury depend upon the downward pull of the force of gravity,
but they may be slow to take the trouble to make the neces-
sary corrections and allowances. Exact meteorology is now
R E V 4
engaged in studying the atmosphere as a whole and demands
that at.mospheric pressure should be everywhere measured
by the same standard and not by one that varies with the
temperature or the latitude. There was a time when every
city and country could have its own standard foot, pound,
and bushel, but this confusion is now largely abolished in
commercial matters and must, also, be abolished in science.
We must measure preseuw in some uniforni standard unit,
such as the weight of a pound of mercury, or the height of a
column of mercury, under standard gravity. The pressure,
per square inch, that will hold up fifteen pounds of mercury
under the standa,rd gravity that prevails under 4 5 O of latitude
and sea level, will not hold up so much mercury when the
attraction of gravihtion upon the mercury increases, as i t
does do as we go northward toward the pole. The reduction
to standard gravity is simply an effort to convert our meas-
urements of atmospheric pressure into one common unit so
that they will be strictly comparable among themselves all
over the world.
THE PRACTICAL SIDE OF WEATHER BUREAU WOFLK.
The observers in charge of Weather Bureau stations are
expected to be, not merely faithful observers and studious
meteorologists, hut also eminently practical men. That is
to say, they must kuow when, where, and how to apply their
knowledge to the best interests of the community around
them, and that community consists not merely of the citi-
zens of the city or town in which the station is located, but
also includes all the country tributary thereto. We have not
yet learned that any other governnient weather bureau has
'called upon the merchants or citizens to forin local meteoro-
logical committees to advise with the local observers as to
their mutual interests ; but this is always done by the United
States Weather Bureau, and has been one of the most impor-
tant means of securing the appreciative support of the people.
We are led to these remarks by a paragraph in the recent
annual report of the Chamber of Commerce of Chattanooga,
commenting upon the work of our observer in charge, Mr.
Lewis M. Pindell. Of course, this report is but one of hun-
dreds that are made from time to time by every local com-
mittee 011 meteorology. If similar committees were estab-
lished in other countries, their respective weather services
would, perhaps, profit thereby as the United States Weather
Bureau has done.
THE WEATHER BUREAU AND THE LIBRARIES.
Although the publications of the Climate and Crop sections
are widely distributed in their respective States, yet it has
always been dificult to secure sets of them for preservation
in libraries outside of the States. I n order to remedy this
difficulty, the Chief of the Weather Bureau has directed that
complete sets of all the monthly reports of sections be depos-
ited with the larger libraries of the United States, and the
special meteorological libraries of foreign countries. The list
thus far agreed upon is as follows:
The Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.
The Free Public Library, San Francisco, Cal.
The Public Library, Chicago, Ill.
The Public Library, Boston, Mass.
The Public Library, St. Louis, RIo.
The Astor Branch of the Public Library, New York, E. Y.
The Meteorological Office, Toronto, Canada.
The K. P. Met. Institut, 6 Schinkelplatz, Berlin, W.
The Deutsche Seewarte, Hamburg, Germany.
The Ceiitralanstalt f. Met., Vienna, Austria.
The Central Physical Observatory, St. Petersburg, Russia.