LACE AND LACE-MAKING. 521 



cations issuing from her Department des Cartes et Plans, is hai-dly 

 behind Great Britain ; from the time of the father of French hydrog- 

 raphy, M. Beautemps Beaupre, to that of its present distinguished 

 director. Vice- Admiral Jurien de la Graviere, this office has not ceased 

 to assert its prominence and usefulness, France, however, though 

 constantly and systematically prosecuting foreign hydrographic sur- 

 veys, has not carried this work to the same extent as England. Spain, 

 of late yeai'S, has rested on her laurels of the past, and with other 

 maritime nations, with exception of casual foreign surveys, has re- 

 stricted herself to the shores of her own possessions, and to issuing 

 from time to time valuable publications and information for the bene- 

 fit of navigation. The United States Hydrographic Office, though 

 yet in its infancy, has made rapid progress, and now issues a respect- 

 able number of piiblications ; no permanent system, however, of hy- 

 drographic surveys has ever been successfully instituted under the 

 Navy Department. On its own coast, in its waters and harbors, the 

 work of the United States Coast Survey is extensive, scientific, and 

 thorough, and many years will yet be required for its completion. 



All attempts to inaugurate a system of foi-eign surveys have failed, 

 though, with intervals of many years, spasmodic eiForts have been 

 made and expeditions sent from her shores, which have done good 

 service to hydrography and geographical science, though many and 

 powerful attempts have been made by those interested in commerce 

 and navigation to induce legislators to appropriate the small amounts 

 requisite for this service ; yet, even when s\ich have been organized, 

 and the hydrographic work was beginning to yield its fruit, the want 

 of interest and legislation has crushed it out, and necessitated the 

 withdrawal of the work, leaving only the hope that in time to come 

 the United States may assist the other great maritime nations in 

 making more smooth the course of the mariner through the paths of 

 the great deep. Millions of property have been lost, with thousands 

 of valuable lives, from the lamentable neglect of continued hydro- 

 graphic surveys. 



LACE AND LACE-MAKING.' 



Bv ELIZA A. YOUMANS. 



TO think of lace merely as a symbol of vanity is quite to miss its 

 deeper significance. If the feeling that prompts to personal 

 decoration be a prober one and it is certainly a natural and univer- 

 sal sentiment then lace has its defense, and we may agree with old 



' We cannot give a complete account of lace in a magazine article, but readers who 

 desire more information are referred to Mrs. Palliser's excellent history of the subject, to 

 which we are largely indebted, and from which our illustrations are mostly taken. 



