SKETCH OF JEAN-CHARLES HOUZEAU. 547 



sioned by the Minister of War as astronomer to determine lati- 

 tudes and azimuths and make geodetic observations in the tri- 

 angulation of the Belgian coast. He performed this work -with 

 great credit to himself and advantage to the service till 1857, 

 when, the appropriations failing, he was dismissed. About this 

 time (1857) he published his History of the Soil of Europe the 

 most important work he produced prior to crossing the Atlan- 

 tic. It was accompanied by a map which deserves mention as 

 embodying the first attempt that was made, with a satisfactory 

 degree of success, to represent the relief by curves and by succes- 

 sively deeper tints of shading. Berghaus had previously attempted 

 a map with relief curves, but it left much room for improvement. 



After his dismissal from the work of triangulation, Houzeau 

 proceeded to carry out a desire which he had cherished for many 

 years to visit the United States, where he expected to study a 

 society and customs different from those with which he was 

 acquainted. He embarked from Liverpool on an emigrant sail- 

 ing vessel, on the 11th of September, and reached New Orleans 

 after a voyage of seven weeks, much of the time marked by hard 

 storms. He expected to remain in America a few months. His 

 residence actually lasted twenty years. Full accounts of his 

 experiences and observations during the first ten of those years 

 are given in his twenty-four communications to the Revue trimes- 

 trielle. The letters, treating of many questions, constitute, for the 

 time in which they were written, a complete, vivid, and animated 

 picture of the manners and institutions, and the social, political, 

 and intellectual conditions of the districts in which he abode. 

 The question in which he appears to have been most deeply inter- 

 ested was that of the abolition of slavery. After staying at New 

 Orleans long enough to get a passable practical knowledge of the 

 English language, he went to San Antonio, Texas, where he was 

 engaged in surveying for irrigating canals; then made a six 

 weeks' excursion to the Rio Grande, during which he found abun- 

 dant opportunities to carry on studies of the winds ; he was in- 

 terested in observations of Donati's brilliant comet and specu- 

 lations as to its identity with the comets of 1264 and 1556 ; and 

 was commissioned to make surveys in western Texas for the set- 

 tlement of some Spanish land titles which had been acquired 

 by a company. He describes his life here as that of the regular 

 frontiersman. 



When the civil war broke out, Houzeau was in southern 

 Texas, about to start on a geological excursion to the borders of 

 the Indian country. The trip occupied six weeks, and, on his re- 

 turn, he seems to have got himself into some trouble by assisting 

 in the escape of a fugitive slave. After resting a month, he 

 started for another geological excursion toward the Rio Pecos. 



