U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
                WATER-RESOURCES INVESTIGATIONS REPORT 93-4076

                         HYDRO-CLIMATIC DATA NETWORK
                                    (HCDN)
                        STREAMFLOW DATA SET, 1874-1988

                    [This is the \REPORT\1ST_READ.ME file]


         The files in this directory (\REPORT) constitute the USGS Open-
      File Report 92-129, "Hydro-Climatic Data Network (HCDN): A U.S.
      Geological Survey streamflow data set for the United States for
      the study of climate variations, 1874-1988", by J.R. Slack and
      Jurate Maciunas Landwehr.  This report describes the rationale and
      construction of the HCDN data set contained on the CD-ROM.
         Files with a suffix of .TXT are plain ASCII text files.  Files
      with a suffix of .PS are PostScript files.


                                     Text

      COVERS.TXT contains the title pages of the report.
      CONTENTS.TXT contains the table of contents of the formal hardcopy
         report.  (Please note that the pages numbers in this table of
         contents correspond to the pages of the formal hardcopy report
         and do not necessarily correspond to the pages as you print
         these files.)
      PREFACE.TXT contains the preface of the report.
      REPORT.TXT contains the main text of the report.
      REFERENC.TXT contains the references cited in the report.


                                   Figures

      FIGURE1A.PS shows the HCDN stations from a global perspective.
      FIGURE1B.PS shows the HCDN stations in relation to the states.
      FIGURE1C.PS shows the HCDN stations in relation to major rivers of
         the conterminous United States.
      FIGURE1D.PS shows the HCDN stations in relation to water-resources
         regions of the U.S.
      FIGURE1E.PS shows the HCDN stations in relation to hydrologic
         units.
      FIGURE2.PS shows the number of water years of acceptable record at
         each HCDN station.
      FIGURE3.PS shows the number of HCDN stations by record length.
      FIGURE4.PS shows the HCDN stations with acceptable data in
         selected water years.
            4a.  Water year 1900.
            4b.  Water year 1930.
            4c.  Water year 1950.
            4d.  Water year 1988.
      FIGURE5.PS shows the number of HCDN stations with acceptable data
         for a given water year.
      FIGURE6.PS shows the mean annual precipitation within the
         watershed at HCDN stations.
      FIGURE7.PS shows the size of the drainage area at each HCDN
         station.
      FIGURE8.PS shows the number of HCDN stations and total number of
         water years within categories defined by range in drainage
         area.


                                    Tables

      TABLE_1.TXT gives the description, qualifying comments and
         acceptable water years for all stations in the HCDN, listed in
         order of station number.
      TABLE_1.PS is table 1 in PostScript form.
      TABLE_2.TXT gives a summary of the identifying information for
         each HCDN station and for unacceptable Hydrologic Benchmark and
         National Water Conditions stations, in order of station number.
      TABLE_2.PS is table 2 in PostScript form.
      TABLE_3.TXT gives the water years for which there is acceptable
         data and number of such years for each station in the HCDN in
         order of station number.
      TABLE_3.PS is table 3 in PostScript form.
      TABLE_4.TXT gives selected watershed characteristics for each
         station in the HCDN.
      TABLE_4.PS is table 4 in PostScript form.
      TABLE_5.TXT gives the Hydrologic Benchmark and National Water
         Conditions stations which were rejected for inclusion in the
         HCDN, with a brief explanation.
      TABLE_5.PS is table 5 in PostScript form.
      TABLE_6.TXT gives the distribution of HCDN station information by
         water-resource regions.