SKETCH OF MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY. 407 



return to the United States, he declined the offer of the super- 

 intendency of the University of the South at Suwanee, Tenn., to 

 accept the professorship of Meteorology at the Virginia Military 

 Institute. Pending his entrance upon the duties of this position, 

 he considered a scheme for establishing a line of steamers be- 

 tween Norfolk and Flushing in Holland. During the last four 

 years of his life he worked at a meteorological survey of Vir- 

 ginia. He engaged actively again in the advocacy of his old 

 scheme for a Telegraphic Meteorological Bureau, in furtherance 

 of which he repeated an address in Boston and Missouri and sev- 

 eral places in the South. A paper on this subject presented to the 

 International Congress, at St. Petersburg, for the Advancement of 

 Geographic Knowledge, etc., was unanimously approved by that 

 body. The exposure incident to travel in fulfilling his lecturing 

 appointments brought on the illness which ended with his death ; 

 but he continued, to within a few days of that event, dictating 

 and revising the last edition of his Physical Geography. 



Commander Maury is described by his daughter as having 

 been a stout man, about five feet six inches in height, with fresh, 

 ruddy complexion, curling brown hair, and with every feature of 

 his bright countenance bespeaking intellect, kindliness, and force 

 of character. " His fine blue eyes beamed from under his broad 

 forehead with thought and emotion, while his flexible mouth 

 smiled with the pleasure of imparting to others the ideas which 

 were ever welling up in his active brain. . . . His conversation 

 was enjoyed by all who ever met him; he listened and learned 

 while he conversed, and adapted himself to every capacity. He 

 especially delighted in the company of young people, to whom his 

 playful humor and gentle consideration made him very winning." 

 N. P. Willis, speaking of him to a friend, said that he made him 

 subject to his personal magnetism, and during a trip while they 

 were together, " unconsciously furnished an exquisitely interesting 

 study of character." He was a firm believer in the Christian re- 

 ligion, but did not join the church till 1867, when he was con- 

 firmed with his children in the Episcopal Church. His published 

 works, books, pamphlets, and official papers were numerous, and 

 bore reference to the researches which have been described in this 

 sketch, concerning which they stand as original authorities. Or- 

 ders were conferred upon him by the sovereigns of Russia, Den- 

 mark, Portugal, Belgium, and France ; gold medals by those of 

 Prussia, Austria, Sweden, Holland, Sardinia, France, and the free 

 city of Bremen ; and other honors by the Pope and Maximilian. 

 He was a member of ten foreign and four American scientific and 

 historical societies that are named, and of many other learned 

 bodies of which the records were lost during the war. 



