314 CHARLES HENRY DAVIS. 



the Geolo"-ical Action of the Tidal and other Currents of the Ocean " 

 (Mem. Am. Acad., new series, vol. iv.) and his " Law of Deposit of 

 the Flood Tide" (Smithsonian Contributions, vol. iii.). The object of 

 these publications, which made him known to men of science as an 

 hydrogr;ipher of the highest learning and skill, was to exhibit the law 

 of connection between ilie currents of tlie st^a and the alluvial deposits 

 on its borders and in its depths, and to show tliat this law had con- 

 tributed in past ages, in an important degiee, and was still constantly 

 contributing, to the determination and modification of the forms of the 

 continents. 



At tiie same time with the performance of this valuable scientific 

 work, he was rendering conspicuous services to the country, by labors 

 of more directly practical utility. His discovery, in the successive years 

 from 184G to 1S49, of a series of important shoals, before utterly un- 

 suspected, lying in one of the most constantly traversed regions of the 

 ocean, directly in the track of vessels sailing between New York and 

 Europe, or between Boston and West Indian or Southern ports, 

 attracted public attention very powerfully to the value of the Coast 

 Survey, which had not then acquired the position it now holds in the 

 confidence of the country. Several considerable wrecks and accidents, 

 before unexplained, were accounted for by tiiese discoveries, which 

 called forth special letters of acknowledgment from merchants and 

 insurance companies. 



Lieutenant Davis was detached from the Coast Survey in 1849, 

 and ordered to duty as the first superintendent of the new "American 

 Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac," which owed its foundation directly 

 to his efforts. The following extract from a letter of Professor Bache 

 to the Secretary of the Treasury, dated 17th July, 1849, — a letter in no 

 way called for by any courtesy of custom, — shows the estimation in 

 which he was held by his eminent chief: " The official reports of the 

 progress of the Coast Survey have, from time to time, brought the 

 name and services of Lieutenant Davis very prominently before 

 the department, as marked by all the (jualities which insure distinction 

 in such a work. The loss of his services will be deeply felt. The 

 zeal, industry, knowledge, and judgment ripened by experience, which 

 he has brought to the survey, cannot soon be replaced. They have 

 conferred upon it some of its most decided claims to usefulness and 

 public approval. In parting with this most valued officer for a field of 

 duty alike honorable to him and useful to the country, I desire to place 

 on the records of the Treasury Department the strongest expression 

 of my sense of his merits in the career which he leaves." 



