lake ports, and cities. Of the total number of cautionary signals thus displayed, seventy-five per cent. have been afterward reported as justified. In no case has any great storm swept over the ports of the United States without preannouncement.

By an arrangement with the Post-Office Department, 6,286 printed "farmers' bulletins," on which appear the daily reports of the Signal-Office, have been distributed and displayed in frames, daily at as many different post-offices in different cities, villages, and hamlets, in different States, for the use of the agricultural population of the country, and they have been so displayed, on an average, within ten hours from the time they have left the Signal-Office in Washington.

The river reports, giving the average depth of water in the different great rivers of the interior, and notice of dangerous changes, for the benefit of river commerce and the population in the vicinity, have been regularly made, telegraphed, bulletined in frames, and published by the press at the different river ports and cities, and, in cases of great floods, special river reports have been issued.

By the great diffusion given the reports of this office through the press, the display of the different office bulletins and forms of report, the maps and regular publications, it is estimated that the statements based upon the information gathered upon the files of the office and issued for the public use reach daily at least one-third of all the households in the United States.

The publications of the office, the Weekly Weather Chronicle and the Monthly Weather Review, have been regularly issued during the year. A number of valuable charts have been prepared. A single atlas condenses into twelve charts results as to the average courses of movements of areas of disturbance in the United States, derived from the studies of the 3,375 charts charted at the Signal-Office in the period from March, 1871, to April, 1874.

As in the preceding years, a very considerable number of observations have, at the request of the Department, been taken on vessels at sea, to complement the synchronous reports of the service, and forwarded. Their utility is evident in the study of storms approaching our coasts, or which endanger vessels sailing from our ports.

At the Congress of persons charged with meteorological duties, assembled at Vienna in 1873, a prop osition, to the effect that it is desirable, with a view to their exchange, that at least one uniform observation of such character as to be suitable for the preparation of synoptic charts be taken and recorded daily and simultaneously throughout the world, was adopted.

Special correspondence had by the Signal-Officer, by authority of the department, with scientists and chiefs of meteorological services representing the different countries, has resulted in arrangements by which a record of observations to be taken daily, simultaneously with the observations taken throughout the United States and the adjacent islands, is exchanged semi-monthly. These reports are to cover the territorial extent of Algiers, Austria, Belgium, Great Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia in Europe and Asia, Sweden and Norway, Spain, Switzerland, and Turkey. Requests for similar cooperation are proffered to other nations as rapidly as practicable. The results had from this report are considered of especial importance, combining a cooperation thus already extending around the northern hemisphere to aid in the solution of questions upon which the United States has entered, and preparing for an exchange of telegraphic reports when that may be deemed advisable. Thus it has been left to the youngest nation to organize, and in a great measure perfect, a system of weather observations and meteorological studies which will soon encircle half the globe.

The sea-coast service of the Signal-Corps, in connection with the life-saving service, has been continued during the year. Telegraphic lines reaching from Barnegat to Cape May and from Norfolk to Cape Hatteras have been constructed, the stations upon them occupied, and the telegraphic lines operated by the officers and enlisted men of the signalservice. The telegraphic wires connect each station directly with the War Department.

The chief Signal-Officer earnestly recommends a more permanent organization of the signal-service, as necessary for the interests of the United States.

In June, 1874, $15,000 was appropriated by Congress "to enable the Secretary of War to begin the publication of the official record of the late war, both of the Union and Confederate armies." This work has been commenced with a determination to spare no pains to make the arrangement of the records simple and complete, and at the same time to omit all irrelevant matter.

One of the most important military changes during the year was, the removal of the headquarters of the commanding general from Washington to St. Louis. This change took place October 1st. "Here," says General Sherman, "I am centrally located, and, should occasion arise, I can personally proceed to any point of this continent where my services are needed."

ARNOTT, NEIL, M. D., F. R. S., F. G. S., an eminent British physician, physicist, and philanthropist, born in Arbroath, Scotland, in 1788; died in London, March 4, 1874. He was a member of a family somewhat noted in the annals of Scotland, his family home being at Dysart, near Montrose, Scotland. He was educated at the Aberdeen Grammar-School, and subsequently at Marischal College, in the University of Aberdeen, and, after taking the medical course in the university, went to London in 1806, and became the pupil of Sir Everard Home, Surgeon of St. George's Hospital. After passing his medical examination, he spent some years as a surgeon in the naval service of the East India Company, and in 1811 settled in London as a physician, where he soon attained a very large practice. In 1815 he was appointed physician to the French embassy, and soon afterward to the Spanish embassy. In 1823-24, Dr. Arnott was induced to deliver a course of lectures on natural philosophy in its applications to medicine, a subject to which he had given great thought. These lectures formed the basis of his valuable and popular work, first published in 1827, "Elements of Physics; or, Natural Philosophy, General and Medical." This work was for forty years the standard work on physics, but the professional duties of the author were so engrossing that it

was not until 1864 that he was able to find time to prepare the concluding chapters on electricity and astronomy. In 1836 he was

named a member of the Senate of the University of London, and soon afterward a Fellow of the Royal Society, and still later a Fellow

of the Geographical Society. In 1837 he was gazetted physician extraordinary to the Queen. In 1888 he published a treatise on "Warming and Ventilating;" and, in 1855, one on "The Smokeless Fire-place, Chimney-Valves, etc." He was a man of great mechanical genius, and invented the Arnott stove, the Arnott ventilator, a water-bed of great excellence for invalids, and other valuable contrivances to increase human comfort and relieve suffering. With characteristic disinterestedness, he refused to patent any of these, lest the cost of them should be enhanced to the poor. In 1861 he published a Survey of Human Progress." In 1869 he gave to each of the Universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and St. Andrew's, a donation of £1,000 ($5,000) for the promotion of the study of experimental physics among the medical students. He also placed at the disposal of the Senate of the University of London £2,000 ($10,000) to found a scientific scholarship.

ASHANTEE.* Even before the arrival of Sir Garnet Wolseley, October, 1873, on the Gold Coast, the commanding general of the Ashantees, Amantaquia, had received from the King of the Ashantees the order to retreat. Violent rain-showers and epidemics had carried off many of their warriors. Before retreating, the Ashantee general made an attempt to possess himself of Abrakrampa, the capital of Abra, and formerly the capital of the kingdom of Fantee. The place was defended by Major Baker Russell, at the head of about 600 men, mostly natives, and gallantly withstood the onset of the Ashantees, who, on November 6th, abandoned the siege, and continued their retreat. At the beginning of December they fully evacuated the British territory, after having occupied it for nearly a year, and thoroughly devastated the Denkera and Fantee districts. The Ashantees, in their retreat, did not stop short of their capital, Coomassie. Here, according to their custom, the soldiers were received with military salutes and other honors. Of the 40,000 warriors who had taken the field, only 20,000 returned home. Seventy-nine coffins, containing the remains of the fallen nobles, were carried through the streets. The army was assembled by the King on the large market-place, and treated to roast-lamb and brandy. The general, the princes, and nobles, who had taken part in the expedition, were invited by the King to a council, where it was resolved to continue the

war.

As General Wolseley considered the number of troops he had under his command entirely insufficient to finish the war, he soon after his arrival demanded new reënforcements. At the beginning of December the new troops arrived, consisting of the Forty-second Regiment, Royal Highlanders, called the Black Watch, a regiment which in the eighteenth century during

* For a geographical description of the kingdom of Ashantee, see ANNUAL CYCLOPÆDIA for 1873.

the Jacobite disturbances had become famous as coast watch, the Rifle Brigade, the Twentythird Regiment, Royal Welsh Fusileers, some volunteers of the Seventy-ninth Regiment, a battalion of marine infantry, and the First Regiment of West Indians (negroes). As the preparations for transporting the troops into the interior were far from being finished, they had to remain in their ships for about one month. As a sufficient number of beasts of burden was not at hand, a large corps of carriers had to be organized. As the Fantee generally showed themselves unwilling and untrustworthy, the organization of this branch of the service encountered unexpected difficulties; the West Indian negroes, and even the Highlanders and the riflemen, had for some days to serve as carriers. At last, LieutenantColonel Colley, to whom the task of organizing the transport of the army had been assigned, succeeded in organizing a sufficient number of Fantee women, who were hired at one and a half shilling a day, and had to carry fifty pounds each. In the mean while, Major Home, of the Engineers, had constructed a good military road from Cape-Coast Castle to Prahsu on the Prah. Eight barrack-stations were established on this road, seven of which afforded shelter for half a battalion each; while at Prahsu, accommodations had been prepared for the entire English army. Electric wires connected Cape-Coast Castle with Mansu, and Mansu with Prahsu. These two villages, as well as Donqua, Yankomasi, and the other villages on the road from Cape-Coast Castle to Prahsu, had been destroyed at the time when the Ashantees invaded the territory. At Mansu and Prahsu post and telegraph offices were established, and Mansu and Donqua were fortified by means of intrenchments, palisades, and ditches. Prahsu, which was more strongly fortified than any of the other stations, had the appearance of a city of soldiers' huts. The army was attended by seventy physicians and surgeons.

On December 27th, Ceneral Wolseley, with the Naval Brigade under Captain Blake, left for the Prah. The plans of operation provided that the regiments were to begin their march on January 6, 1874, that they were to arrive a week later at Prahsu, and to cross the Prah on January 15th. On the same day, Captain Glover and Captain Butler were to cross the Prah with the native corps they were to raise in Western Assin, and Captain Dalrymple in the west with the Wassaws. This plan was, however, but partly executed; the efforts of Butler and Dalrymple to raise native corps were an entire failure. The Ashantees were first followed by the native troops under command of Wood and Russell, who suffered less than the English troops from want of provisions, and therefore were prepared the first to cross the Prah. This river is considered the frontier of the Ashantees, but Ashantee proper begins at the Adansi

Mountains. The country lying between, called Ashantee Assin, is the northern portion of Assin, and was at this time but thinly peopled, as the inhabitants had mostly emigrated into the southern districts, which belong to the English dominions. As the Ashantees did not consider their country invaded so long as the Adansi Mountains were not occupied by the enemy, they did not oppose the crossing of the Prah, and the English army marched the first thirty miles, or about one half of the distance between the frontier and Coomassie, without encountering any serious resistance. All the villages had been abandoned by the inhabitants. They were found to be better built than those in the English dominions, and afforded good shelter to the troops. On the 6th, Lord Gifford, who commanded the scouts, was pushing on as far as the village of Essiaman, twelve miles beyond the Prah. He saw smoke in the village in front of him, let his men load, and advanced hoping to surprise those within; but the men he had sent round to intercept the rear of the few holding the village were fired on, and he was obliged to return the fire. Only eight Ashantee scouts occupied the village. One was killed, the rest escaped, leaving two women prisoners. One of the English scouts was wounded, five slags being put into or through him. The women said there were no Ashantees nearer than Quisah. The Ashantee scouts had, according to their evidence, been down to the Prah on the 2d of January. They had, in fact, accompanied the envoys, who on that day came to Sir Garnet Wolseley with letters from the King of Ashantee, which were addressed to Colonel Harley. The envoys were kept till the 6th, on which day the bridge over the Prah was completed. On the 4th they were allowed to see the practice with the Gatling guns. That night one of the Ashantee escort shot himself. Afterward it appeared that he had been so frightened by the Gatling shot that he had said if white men had those weapons resistance was useless. The other envoys said they would report him to the King of Ashantee, and the fear of death by torture made him kill himself. He was buried on the farther side of the river, to the great delight of the envoys, who were most anxious to have him buried in his own land. Each man threw dust on the body, as in a Jewish funeral.

At this time the difficulty about the carriers had come to an end. Thanks almost entirely to the vigorous steps taken by Colonel Colley, and to the admirable management of that offieer, eight thousand carriers were now working steadily upon the road. Here the concentration of the troops was to take place. The troops were moving by three stages, each about eleven miles long, from Prahsu to Monsi, at the southern foot of the Adansi Hills. First, from Prahsu to Essiaman; second, from Essiaman to Acrow fumu; third, from Acrowfumu to Monsi. The headquarters, with the Naval

Brigade, and the First Battalion of the Rifle Brigade, reached Monsi on the 20th. The other battalions followed in succession. The road had been admirably made, and every stream bridged completely to Fommanah, situated a mile and a half on the farther side of the Adansi Hills, by the engineers. The road, with the exception of the three miles nearest the Prah, was better than that between Cape Coast and the Prah, along which the general's carriage, drawn by natives, moved the whole distance. Even the portion for three miles this side of the Prah had been well covered with a sort of bastard, but very bad, corduroy. It was terribly swampy all along the line. At Atobiasi, Essiaman, Acrow fumu, Monsi, Quisah, Fommanah, and at two points between Acrowfumu and Monsi, not marked on home maps, intrenchments had been made to be held by small forces and protect the stores. Storehouses had been also made, and some huts. Those who could not thus obtain shelter had large tents, under which wattle-beds, keeping the men well off the ground, were constructed. The Adansi Hills fell into the hands of the English on the 16th. Lord Gifford pushing up with his scouts found the Ashantees in possession, but succeeded in frightening them into falling back by surrounding them and threatening an attack. On the 8th Major Russell, finding Quisah, half a mile on the farther side of the Adansi Hills, unoccupied, entered it with his regiment, and intrenched it. Wood's regiment and Rait's artillery were pushed up together on the 15th in support. Colonel Colley's vigor and success with the native carriers elicited universal praise. He undertook the task when it had just become a serious difficulty, and by a combination of energy and care for the men succeeded in placing it on a proper footing. The whole matter was put in his hands. He redressed all grievances, chiefly due to the carelessness of native guides, saw that the men had proper food, and intervals of rest. Then he surrounded with West Indian sentries the villages to which deserters resorted, and thus made escape impossible. After the return of his embassadors the King secretly determined to continue the war vigorously; at the same time, however, he sent the captive missionaries to General Wolseley to assure him of his desire to make peace. Missionary Kühne arrived at Prahsu on January 13th to deliver the message of the King. General Wolseley replied that the King must set free all the European captives, pay an indemnity to the amount of £200,000, and sign a treaty of peace in the presence of the British army which would secure the protectorate and its allies against future attacks. On January 24th, the general with the Naval Brigade marched to Fommanah and established his headquarters in the palace of the King of Adansi. Now the King also liberated the missionary Ramseyer, his wife, and the Frenchman Bonnat. Ramseyer delivered to General Wolseley a letter from the King in which he

notified the English general that he had instructed Amanquatia to pay the indemnification, on condition that General Wolseley remained in Fommanah. General Wolseley now believed the war to be at an end, and sent an express steamer to England to notify his government. The captives informed the English, however, that in every house in Coomassie slaves were busy making slugs out of stones. Of the liberated captives, Mr. and Mrs. Ramseyer were sent to Cape-Coast Castle, while Bonnat remained with the expedition. The Ashantee messengers were sent back by General Wolseley on the afternoon of January 26th. During the negotiations for peace, the regiment of Russell had advanced farther, and Lord Gifford, by extensive reconnoissances, had found that the villages on the road were strongly occupied by Ashantee warriors, and that the women and children had been removed from them. Major Russell summoned these garrisons to evacuate the villages, and, when they refused, attacked one of the villages and set it on fire. General Wolseley, still believing in the sincerity of the King's propositions for peace, gave orders to Major Russell hereafter not to burn any village, nor at any future encounter with the Ashantees to open fire. Soon after Lord Gifford intercepted a powder-convoy which was sent from Coomassie to Borborasi; at the same time he learned that the Ashantee general Essamanquatia and the Prince of Adansi were there with a considerable force. Colonel McLeod, who had been appointed brigadier of the native forces, received orders to march to Borborasi, first to open negotiations, and, in case resistance should be made, to attack the enemy, but not to destroy the place. Captain Nicol, who led the van, stopped in front of the village, but, when on the point of beginning negotiations, was treacherously shot through the heart. Colonel McLeod then took the village, but, in accordance with his instructions, did not destroy it. On January 28th, other Ashantee messengers came to Fommanah, but immediately returned. The English soldiers were officially informed that the negotiations had been broken off, and that the war would go on. The Ashantee general Amanquatia had concentrated his new strong army and taken position at Amoaful, twenty miles from Coomassie. The van of the Ashantees occupied the village of Egginasi, half a mile from Amoaful. The latter is a place of about 2,000 inhabitants, and situated on a high hill, while Egginasi lies on a lower hill; between both is a marshy valley crossed by a turbid creek. The slopes of both hills were densely wooded. Here Amanquatia had an army of 20,000 men, while the English only numbered 3,000. The English van, embracing the regiments of Wood and Russell, on January 30th, occupied Quarman, a village situated half a mile south of Egginasi; in the afternoon Major Home widened the road to Egginasi, and during the night Lord Gifford reconnoitred the enemy's position. The

bulk of the English army was at Jusarfu, four miles south of Quarman. It consisted of the Forty-second Regiment, the Black Watch, under Major Duncan McPherson; the Rifle Brigade, under Lieutenant-Colonel Warren; and one hundred men of the Twenty-third Regiment, under Lieutenant-Colonel Moslyn. Together, these troops formed the White Brigade, commanded by Brigadier Sir Archibald Alison, son of the English historian; to this were added the Naval Brigade under Captain Grubbe, a company of the Second West Indians, under Lieutenant Jones, and the Houssa with seven-pounders and rockets, under Captain Rait.

As General Wolseley saw that the small English army would be encircled by the overwhelming numbers of the enemy, as soon as it would reach Egginasi, he formed his army into a large square, in order to front the enemy on all sides, and to keep the inclosed ground free from all hidden enemies. Brigadier Alison, with the Forty-second Regiment, Gifford's skirmishers, Home's sappers, and Rait's artillery, was to advance and take Amoaful. Lieutenant-Colonel Moslyn commanded the right flank, and Colonel McLeod the left. General Wolseley, with his staff and Commodore Hewett and a company of the Twenty-third Regiment, took his place behind the front column. Quarman was occupied by Lieutenant Jones and the Second West Indian; the rear was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Warren. On January 31st, early in the morning, the Black Watch marched through Quarman and Egginasi into the woods, where, at about eight o'clock, they were most vehemently attacked by the Ashantees. The battle lasted until nearly twelve o'clock, when the end of the wood was reached, the hill taken, the fire of the Ashantees silenced, and Amoaful occupied. The Ashantees had lost a large number of killed and wounded, but the losses of the Black Watch were likewise severe. Nine officers and one hundred and five men were severely wounded; one officer and two men killed. The three other columns of the English army had also encounters with the Ashantees, who even destroyed a part of the baggage; but, at last, the Ashantees had to fall back on all sides. After the battle at Amoaful, there was a comparative lull for one day; though, even on that day, February 1st, some of the troops which had been most hotly engaged in the battle had to attack the village of Becquah, on the left flank of the English position. But on the second day, when the general moved forward as far as Agimmamu, the enemy dis puted every mile of ground. Again, on February 2d, the enemy was in great force, opposing the advance of the English, and hanging round their flanks. The King on that day sent to Sir Garnet a characteristic letter, alleging, perhaps with unconscious truth, that "your Excellency's very rapid movements put me into confusion," and offering compliance if he were given time. Sir Garnet, in reply, de

manded hostages in the persons of the King's mother and brother, and, in the event of their not being sent that day, announced that on the 4th of February he would march on Coomassie. They were not sent; and that evening the British force halted on the banks of the Ordah. A heavy rain fell during the night, and drenched the troops in their bivouac; and early the next morning they crossed the Ordah for their final advance. Here, however, the enemy made their last stand. They did not, according to Sir Garnet, fight with the same courage as at Amoaful. Their fire was wild, and they did not venture to attack the English at such close quarters. But their resistance was none the less most determined, and they maintained a general action for six hours. The village of Ordahsu was soon carried; the Ashantees, nevertheless, maintained the attack all around; but the baggage and ammunition were passed through the troops into the village, and then the force was massed there. At length, after some hours' incessant fighting, a panic seems to have seized the enemy, and they fled to Coomassie in complete rout, leaving behind them the umbrellas and other symbols of their chief's authority. Sir Garnet then called on his troops to make their final effort; and, notwithstanding their two days' work, and their lack of rest the night before, they pushed on upon the very heels of their retreating foe, and, at six o'clock in the evening, they formed up in the main street of Coomassie, and gave three cheers for the Queen. Sir Garnet Wolseley soon found that the King was adopting the same policy of gaining time by promises of negotiating. If Sir Garnet had been able to wait, he would, no doubt, have tried further measures to induce the King to come to terms; but this, he found, would be impossible. The rain which had fallen on the eve of the battle of Ordahsu was but the commencement of a succession of tornadoes, and he knew that with every day's delay the streams would become dangerously swollen, and the swamps more impassable. It was imperative that he should return at once, whether with or without a treaty. In these circumstances Sir Garnet determined, by burning the city, "to leave such a mark of our power as shall deter from future aggression a nation whom treaties do not bind." He accordingly prepared for the return-march with the same skill which had marked his advance. In the morning of the 5th he had sent off, under escort, all the wounded who were unable to march, and he gave orders to be ready for the return of his army on the morning of the 6th. Early on that day the town was set on fire, and the mines in the palace exploded, and as a rearguard of the Forty-second Highlanders left the capital its destruction was complete.

A writer who was present at the entry of the troops into Coomassie gives a description of the interior of the King's palace. He says there was a court-yard of some ten yards

square in the inner yard and twenty yards exterior. The court-yard was open. Upon one side was a staircase leading to the upper story, upon the other were open store-rooms, in which the royal umbrellas, the canes used in processions, etc., were kept. The upper rooms were used as store-rooms. Here was an infinite variety of articles, for the most part mere rubbish, but many interesting and valuable. Silver plate, gold masks, gold caps, clocks, glass, china, pillows, guns, cloth, caskets, an olla-podrida, which resembled the contents of a saleroom. The rest of the palace was built in the native manner, and exactly resembled that of the King of Fommanah, but multiplied, not magnified, many times. In one were the war-drums, all ornamented either with human skulls, or thigh-bones; others were quite empty, while in two or three was simply a royal chair, upon which his Majesty used to sit to administer justice or decree vengeance. Signs of the latter were not wanting. Several stools were found covered with thick coatings of recentlyshed blood, and a horrible smell of gore pervaded the whole palace, and indeed the whole town. That ghastly odor was everywhere perceptible, indeed, we could never get rid of it; occasionally it might have been fancy, but every one was of opinion that a sickly smell of blood was ever present. Part of this was no doubt due to a charnel-place, some twenty yards from one of the fetich-trees, hidden from sight of all who walked, by a fringe of rushes. Here were the bodies of some of the victims of fetich. Five or six were only two or three days old, while of others nothing but the skulls remained, and there were scores of others in various stages of putrefaction. The palace was full of fetich-objects. The King's private sitting-room was, like the rest, an open court, with a tree growing in it. This tree was covered with fetich-objects, and hung with spiders'webs. At each end was a small, but deep alcove, with a royal chair, so that the monarch could always sit upon the shady side. Along each side of the little court ran a sort of veranda, beneath which was an immense assortment of little idols and fetiches of all kinds. From one of these a door opened into the King's bedroom, a room about ten feet by eight. At one end was the royal couch, a raised bedstead with curtains, and upon a ledge by the near side-that is to say, the King had to step over the ledge to get into bed-were a variety of weapons, together with an English general's sword, bearing the inscription, "From Queen Victoria to the King of Ashantee." Upon the floor, at the end opposite the bed, was a couch upon which the King could sit and talk with his wives. The room was very dark, being lighted only by a small window, about a foot square, opening into the women's apartments. In this part of the palace all sorts of stuffs, some of European, some of native manufacture, were found scattered about in wild confusion.

General Wolseley, after burning Coomassie