314 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



surface, as well as 120 others relating to changes in lights, 

 buoys, etc. During the same period 15 new coast and har- 

 bor charts have been engraved and published, principally 

 from the surveys of Commander Dewey, U.S.N., on the coast 

 of Lower California, 15 new photo-lithographed charts have 

 been compiled from recent foreign surveys, and 30 chart- 

 plates have received extensive additions and corrections, be- 

 sides minor corrections on many more. Of the publications 

 of the Hydrographic Office, 4545 charts and 917 volumes of 

 sailing directions, etc., have been sold. 



A svstem of collecting and arranging materials for wind 

 and current charts, which has already been productive of 

 very excellent results, has been devised by Lieutenant T. A. 

 Lyons, U.S.N., and has been, since 1876, carried on at the 

 Hydrographic Office, under his immediate supervision. In 

 this system the ocean is divided into squares of five degrees 

 of latitude and longitude, with regard to each of which infor- 

 mation is collected and arranged. Admirable charts of a por- 

 tion of the Pacific Ocean from the equator to 45 N. lat., and 

 from the coast of America to 180 W. long., have been already 

 published, embodying the results of a vast amount of labor, 

 and giving complete and accurate information as to winds, 

 weather, currents, temperature of air and sea - water, baro- 

 metric pressure, storms, magnetic curves, etc., of the ocean. 

 Work is far advanced on similar charts of the Atlantic. 



All the log-books of naval vessels from 1858 to 1877 are 

 now undergoing examination and compilation ; while in more 

 recent log-books the required information is tabulated by the 

 navigator ready for immediate use. To gather additional 

 data, blank meteorological journals are furnished to mer- 

 chant vessels, sailing-charts and other hydrographic informa- 

 tion being furnished to ship-masters willing to keep and for- 

 ward the journals. A large number of merchant captains 

 under the United States, British, German, Italian, and Aus- 

 trian flags are now keeping these journals. 



The object of this work, which promises invaluable results, 

 is to gather, discuss, and publish, in an intelligible form, ac- 

 curate information regarding the winds and currents of the 

 ocean. 



Commander Philip, U.S.N., in the U.S.S. Tuscarora, has 

 been engaged in completing the survey of the west coast of 



