appliances, equipments, and supplies of any discontinued station or house of refuge to such other stations or houses of refuge as may need them, and may also transfer any portion of the apparatus, appliances, equipments, and supplies, of one station or house of refuge to another whenever in his judgment the interests of the service may require it. SEC. 4. That hereafter all district superintendents of life-saving stations shall be disbursing officers and paymasters for their respective districts, and shall give such bonds as the Secretary of the Treasury may require, and shall have the powers and perform the duties of inspectors of customs; and the compensation of the superintendents in the districts herein named shall be as follows:

For the first district embracing the coasts of Maine and New Hampshire, fifteen hundred dollars per annum.

For the second district, embracing the coast of Massachusetts fifteen hundred dollars per annum.

For the third district, embracing the coasts of Rhode Island and Long Island eighteen hundred dollars per annum.

For the fourth district, embracing the coast of New Jersey, eighteen hundred dollars per annum.

For the fifth district, embracing the coast between Delaware and Chesapeake Bays, fifteen hundred dollars per annum.

For the sixth district, embracing the coast between Chesapeake Bay and Cape Fear River eighteen hundred dollars per annum.

For the seventh district, embracing the eastern coast of Florida and the coast of Georgia and South Carolina, twelve hundred dollars per annum. For the eighth district, embracing the coast of the United States bordering on the Gulf of Mexico, fifteen hundred dollars per annum.

For the ninth district, embracing the coasts of Lakes Ontario and Erie, eighteen hundred dollars per annum.

For the tenth district, embracing the coasts of Lakes Huron and Superior, eighteen hundred dollars per annum.

For the eleventh district, embracing the coast of Lake Michigan, eighteen hundred dollars per annum.

For the twelfth district, embracing the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington Territory, one thousand eight hundred dollars per an

num.

SEC. 5. That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to appoint and fix the annual compensation of the several keepers of all stations and houses of refuge at such rate as he may deem just and proper: Provided, That the compensation of any keeper shall not exceed eight hundred dollars per annum; and the Secretary of the Treasury is also authorized to fix the pay of the men employed at the different stations, provided the same shall not exceed fifty dollars per month

SEC. 6. That crews may be employed at any of the life saving or life-boat stations on the Pacific coast during such portion of the year as the general superintendent may deem necessary.

SEC. 7. That if any keeper or member of a crew of a life-saving or life-boat station shall be so disabled by reason of any wound or injury received or disease contracted in the Life-Saving Service in the line of duty as to unfit him for the performance of duty, such disability to be determined in such manner as shall be prescribed in the regulations of the service, he shall be continued upon the rolls of the service and entitled to receive his full pay during the continuance of such disability, not to exceed the period of one year, unless the general superintendent shall recommend, upon a statement of facts, the extension of the period

through a portion or the whole of another year, and said recommendation receive the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury as just and reasonable; but in no case shall said disabled keeper or member of a crew be continued upon the rolls or receive pay for a longer period than two years.

SEC. S. That if any keeper or member of a crew of a life saving or life boat station shall hereafter die by reason of perilous service or any wound or injury received or disease contracted in the life-saving service in the line of duty, leaving a widow, or a child or children under sixteen years of age, such widow and child or children shall be entitled to receive, in equal portions, during a period of two years, under such regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe, the same amount payable quarterly, as far as practicable, that the husband or father would be entitled to receive as pay if he were alive and continued in the service: Provided, That if the widow shall re-marry at any time during the said two years, her portion of said amount shall cease to be paid to her from the date of her remarriage, but shall be added to the amount to be paid to the remaining beneficiaries under the provisions of this section, if there be any; and if any child shall arrive at the age of sixteen years during the said two years, the payment of the portion of such child shall cease to be paid to such child from the date on which such age shall be attained, but shall be added to the amount to be paid to the remaining beneficiaries, if there be any.

SEC. 9. That the life-saving medals of the first and second class authorized by the provisions of the seventh section of the act of July twentieth, eighteen hundred and seventy-four, shall be hereafter designated as the gold and silver life-saving medal respectively, and any person who has received or may hereafter receive either of said medals under the provisions of said section, or the twelfth section of the act of June eighteenth, eighteen hundred and seventy-eight, and who shall again perform an act which would entitle him to a medal of the same class under said provisions, shall receive, and the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to award, in lieu of a second medal, a bar, suitably inscribed, of the same metal as the medal to which said person would be entitled, to be attached to a ribbon of such description as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe, which may be fastened to the medal already bestowed upon said person; and for every such additional act an additional bar may be added. And the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized, in his discretion, whenever any person becomes entitled to a bar representing a gold medal, to award him, in addition to said bar, such taken as it is customary to award in ac knowledgment of the services of masters and crews of foreign vessels in rescuing American citizens from shipwreck.

SEC. 10. That the appointment of district superintendents, inspectors, and keepers and crews of life-saving stations shall be made solely with reference to their fitness, and without reference to their political or party affiliations.

SEC. 11. That this act shall take effect from and after its passage. Approved, May 4, 1882.

4.-STORM AND WEATHER SIGNALS.

(Revised Statutes, Title VI.)

SEC. 220. The transportation of troops, munitions of war, equipments, military property and stores throughout the United States, shall be under the immediate control and supervision of the Secretary of War and such agents as he may appoint.

SEC. 221. The Secretary of War shall provide for taking meteorological observations at the military stations in the interior of the continent and at other points in the States and Territories, and for giving notice on the northern lakes and sea coast, by magnetic telegraph and marine signals, of the approach and force of storms.

SEC. 222. The Secretary of War shall provide, in the system of observations and reports in charge of the Chief Signal-Officer of the Army for such stations, reports and signals as may be found necessary for the benefit of agriculture and commercial interests.

SEC. 223. The Secretary of War is authorized to establish signal-stations at light-houses and at such of the life-saving stations on the lake or sea-coast as may be suitably located for that purpose, and to connect the same with such points as may be necessary for the proper discharge of the signal service by means of a suitable telegraph-line in cases where no lines are in operation, to be constructed, maintained and worked under the Chief Signal Officer of the Army, or the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Treasury: and the use of the life-saving stations as signal stations shall be subject to such regulations as may be agreed upon by said officials.

1

5.-FIXING A COMMON MERIDIAN.

CHAP. 380.-An act to authorize the President of the United States to call an international conference to fix on and recommend for universal adoption a common prime meridian to be used in the reckoning of longitude and in the regulation of time throughout the world.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States be authorized and requested to extend to the governments of all nations in diplomatic relations with our own an invitation to appoint delegates to meet delegates from the United States in the city of Washington, at such time as he may see fit to designate, for the purpose of fixing upon a meridian proper to be employed as a common zero of longitude and standard of time reckoning throughout the globe; and that the President be authorized to appoint delegates, not exceeding three in number, to represent the United States in such international conference.

Approved, August 3, 1882.

NOTE. In accordance with the above act a congress was held at Washington in the year 1884, composed of delegates from Austria, Brazil, Chili, Columbia, Costa Rica, Germany, Great Britain, France, Guatemala, Hawaii, Italy, Japan, Siberia, Mexico, Netherlands, Paraguay, Russia, San Domingo, Salvador, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United States, and Venezuela, at which all the representatives but those of Brazil, France, and San Domingo voted for Greenwich as a meridian proper for a common zero of longitude, &c.

PART VI.

1. LIGHTS AND BUOYS.

2. COAST SURVEY.

3. NAVIGABLE RIVERS.

4. RIVERS AND HARBORS.

1.—LIGHTS AND BUOYS.*

(Revised Statutes, Title LV.)

SEC. 4653. The President shall appoint two officers of the Navy, of high rank, two officers of the Corps of Engineers of the Army, and two civilians of high scientific attainments, whose services may be at the disposal of the President, together with an officer of the Navy and an officer of engineers of the Army, as secretaries, who shall constitute the Light-House Board.

SEC. 4654. The Secretary of the Treasury shall be ex-officio president of the Light House Board.

SEC. 4655. The Light-House Board shall elect, by ballot, one of their number as chairman of the board, who shall preside at their meetings, when the president is absent, and shall perform such acts as may be prescribed by the rules of the board.

SEC. 4656. The Light-House Board shall meet, for the transaction of business, on the first Mondays in March, June, September, and December. But the Secretary of the Treasury may convene the board whenever, in his judgment, the exigencies of the service require it.

SEC. 4657. The Light-House Board may adopt such regulations for the government of their meetings as they judge expedient.

SEC. 4658. The Light-House Board shall be attached to the office of the Secretary of the Treasury, and under his superintendence shall discharge all administrative duties relating to the construction, illumination, inspection, and superintendence of light-houses, light-vessels, beacons, buoys, sea-marks, and their appendages, and embracing the security of foundations of works already existing, procuring illuminating and other apparatus, supplies, and materials fo [of] all kinds for building, and for rebuilding when necessary, and keeping in good repair the light-houses, light-vessels, beacons, and buoys of the United States; and shall have the charge and custody of all the archives, books, documents, drawings, models, returns, apparatus, and other things appertaining to the Light-House Establishment.

SEC. 4659. The Light House Board shall furnish, upon the requisition of the Secretary of the Treasury, all the estimates of expense which the

*See sec. 5358.

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H. Mis. 391-10