personal wants in this respect have been recognized, and they will take interest in the methods by which they are met and satisfied. Every feature of the signal service has been brought into requisition and use for the work of weather observations and storm warnings, and the original bureau seems to have been so wholly absorbed in the new one that the corps will be known, except perhaps in official circles, only by its operations in this special field, until war shall call for the more frequent use of the flags and rockets and lights, by the aid of which a great part of the rapid communication pertaining to the business of warfare is carried on. The _personnel_ of the corps comprises a chief signal officer (brigadier-general), twelve second lieutenants, one hundred and fifty sergeants, thirty corporals, and three hundred and twenty privates. Prior to 1878 there were no signal officers in the regular establishment except the chief, but in that year authority was given to appoint two second lieutenants annually from the sergeants, and the selection for these appointments is made by competitive examination. Officers are assigned to duty with the corps by detail from the regiments of the army, and after a course of instruction return to their proper stations, and are succeeded by others. A few civilians are employed in the office in Washington city, in various capacities, including that of professional scientist and instructor, but the great work of observation is done by the army force, so called because every member of it is ready at any moment to lay aside his special duties and take up arms for any emergency. The pay of the officers is that of their grade in the army: $5,500 per annum for a brigadier-general; $1,400 for a second lieutenant, with an increase of ten per centum after each five years of service, until the increase reaches forty per centum (after twenty years’ service), when no more is added. (This increase, called longevity pay, is not given to any officer above the rank of colonel.) As the government is supposed to furnish a habitation of a certain number of rooms for each commissioned officer, there is quite an augmentation of the pay when the duty requires a station where there are no public quarters, as is the case in most of the service for the weather bureau, and commutation is paid. The pay of the enlisted men varies according to their rank and station of duty, but is based upon the army pay table. The pay of a sergeant, including all allowances, averages monthly within a few cents of the following amounts: At a military post where quarters and rations are provided in kind, $40; at an observing station, $80; at the office in Washington city, $100; that of a corporal $25, $65, and $85; that of a first class private $22, $62 and $82, and a decrease of four dollars for a second class private, the respective stations being those mentioned for the sergeant. The great difference in the pay of the same