ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 9 



supervision of Congress, it is proposed to collect and preserve the follow- 

 ing materials and sources of geographical information. 1. A first-class 

 terrestrial globe. 2. All materials illustrating the early and recent geo- 

 graphy of the United States, both its sea-coasts and interior, including 

 traced copies of all valuable maps and charts in manuscript and not pub- 

 lished. The materials for illustrating the past and present geography of 

 each State, County, Township and City, should be gathered by purchase, 

 correspondence, and tracing. 3. All maps and charts on the remainder of 

 America. 4. The Admiralty or sea-coast chart of all the European and 

 other foreign States, and the detailed topographical surveys of their in- 

 teriors, where such have been made. 5. The most approved maps pub- 

 lished from private resources whether as atlases, nautical charts, or mural 

 maps, including publications on physical geography, guide-books, railroad- 

 maps, and city hand-books. 6. A complete collection of all the narratives 

 of voyages of discovery and exploration, especially those undertaken 

 by the English and French Governments. 7. Geographical, geodetic and 

 nautical manuals, and treatises, with all the requisite bibliographical aids 

 to the amplest geographical investigation. 



It was also proposed that this department should be placed in charge of 

 a suitable person, who should yearly present to Congress a report, on the 

 geographical explorations by our own and foreign Governments, or by in- 

 dividuals, so far as their results can be learned; making it a synopsis of all 

 the interesting and important geographical facts or publications for the 

 year. Upon the same officer would also devolve the duty of maintaining a 

 correspondence with persons having special geographical knowledge, of 

 keeping a list of persons who could be addressed for additional information 

 on foreign and domestic localities. Also corresponding relations should be 

 maintained with foreign geographical societies, and their publications se- 

 cured with promptness. At present no collection in the United States ap- 

 proaches the completeness or efficiency here contemplated. The Harvard 

 collection, so excellent in old maps, is very deficient in those great 

 works of interior and exterior survey which characterize the last fifty years. 

 No collection exists in our land which furnishes full materials for extensive 

 investigations, such as are now more and more demanded by questions of 

 history, science, commerce, and policy. There is no probability that such 

 a collection can soon be formed anywhere except in the Congress Library. 

 In the facilities which such a library, located at Washington, would furnish 

 the State Department, the Engineer and Topographical Bureaus, the Coast 

 Survey, the National Observatory, and the several Navy Bureaus, the Gov- 

 ernment would derive a full equivalent for all its cost. The value of such 

 a collection in its relations to legislation ; in its illustration of river and 

 harbor questions; in its prospective use for illustrating history, and genei- 



