HYDROGRAPHY. 



By FRANCIS M. GREEN, 



Lieutenant-Commander, U.S.N. 



During the past year a large amount of work has been 

 performed by hydrographic surveyors in different parts of 

 the world, both in actual surveys and in preparing and pub- 

 lishing the results ; although the record of the year's work 

 does not show any one great task either commenced or 

 brought to a conclusion. 



As heretofore, the English have accomplished more than 

 any other nation, but American, French, German, Russian, 

 Austrian, and Italian naval officers have also been steadily 

 working to increase and perfect the knowledge of the shores 

 and depths of the ocean. 



Owing to the very limited appropriations of money for the 

 maintenance of all branches of the United States govern- 

 ment for the past year, the operations of the United States 

 Hydrographic Office and the United States Coast Survey 

 have been very limited. 



For this reason no surveys of any consequence have been 

 carried on by the Hydrographic Office. 



Forty-one new charts of various parts of the earth's sur- 

 face have, however, been compiled and published for the use 

 of navigators ; sailing directions for the coasts of the Medi- 

 terranean Sea, the west coast of Africa, and the West Indies 

 have been prepared and issued; and a very large number 

 of notices of changes in the channels of navigation and of al- 

 terations in lights, buoys, and other aids to navigation have 

 been published. 



A careful examination of the singular bank discovered by 

 Lieut.-Commander Gorringe, U.S.N., off Cape St. Vincent, has 

 shown that the least depth on it is about thirty fathoms, so 

 that it need not be feared as a danger to navigators. 



The late Commander Ryan, in the U.S.S. Huron^ careful- 

 ly determined the latitude and longitude of about twenty 



