16 NOTES BY THE EDITOR 



officers of the British Navy, whereas in truth the lands were discovered 

 and named by the American expedition tinder command of Lieut. 

 DE HAVEN, which passed the English vessels, and led the way up Welling- 

 ton Channel in February, 1850. 



The Naval Observatory, under the superintendence of Lieut. M. F. 

 MATJRY, is doing much for the service and navigation, and much for the 

 benefit of mankind and the honor of our country. 



The operations of the Coast Survey have been prosecuted with vigor 

 during the past year. The operations in the field or afloat, and in the 

 office, have extended to all the States and Territories of our vast coast on 

 the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Pacific. On the Atlantic the 

 triangulation reaches, with an interval of 22 miles, from the mouth of the 

 Kennebec River, Maine, to Boyne Sound, North Carolina. It is com- 

 "menced in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, and extends from Mobile 

 nearly to New Orleans, and from, the head of Galveston Bay to Matagorda 

 Bay, in Texas. The other operations follow it closely. A hydrographic 

 reconnoissance of our western coast has been made from San Diego to 

 Frazer's River, and preliminary surveys of most of the harbors, with 

 charts of them, have been published, or are in progress. It is believed 

 that the history of such surveys does not present a parallel to the prompt- 

 ness with which the execution and publication of the work on that impor- 

 tant coast has been made, keeping pace with the development of a com- 

 merce itself without a parallel. One hundred and forty-three maps and 

 charts have already been issued from the Coast Survey Office, including 

 sketches of examinations of dangers on the coast where the regular sur- 

 veys have not yet reached the localities. The report of the Superintendent 

 for the past year is accompanied with fifty-five maps and sketches, show- 

 ing the progress of the work, and giving information important to navi- 

 gation and commerce. 



The great work of constructing the Pacific Railroad, which will place a 

 stamp upon the enterprise of the nineteenth century, may now be looked 

 upon as fairly undertaken. Four expeditions of survey have been organ- 

 zed under an appropriation of $150,000, in order to present the most 

 practicable line for the track. The first, under command of Governor 

 Stevens, of the territory of Washington, late of the corps of U. S. Topo- 

 graphical Engineers, left St. Paul, Minnesota, in June, and followed the most 

 northerly route, moving westward across the upper branches of the Mis- 

 souri, through the the South Pass, thence to the Columbia River. The 

 report of this expedition has been received. Three new passes in the 

 Rocky Mountains have been discovered; one of which, according to the 

 barometer, is two thousand five hundred feet below the famous South 

 Pass ; the ascent in both directions is gentle, and it would seem that the 



