JOHN ELLIOTT PILLSBURY. 507 



The investigation of the Gulf Stream was undertaken by the Survey 

 on account of its importance to navigation as well as its scientific 

 interest, and work was begun in 1883 with the schooner Drift, which, 

 as her name implies, proved inadequate for the purpose and was re- 

 placed by the Coast Survey Steamer Blake. 



New methods of current measurement and improved instruments 

 for recording observations were devised by Pillsbury, and by the aid 

 of the recently introduced steel cable anchorage was had, sometimes 

 at a depth of over two miles. Observations extended from Tobago 

 on the southeast to Hatteras on the north, and the movements and 

 temperatures of this important current were definitely fixed over a 

 great part of its course. Among the interesting new results of the 

 work were the determination of daily fluctuations in the rate of flow 

 more or less coincident with the tidal action, and the contribution of 

 wave effect, driven b\- the trade winds, in increasing the movement of 

 the stream. 



During the Spanish War he commanded the dynamite cruiser 

 Vesuvius and participated in the attack on San Juan, Porto Rico. 

 He was later promoted to Commander and through the various grades 

 to Rear Admiral and Chief of the Bureau of Navigation in 1908. He 

 received all the medals for service and efficiency in the line of duty 

 which under the law are granted by the Navy Department. 



In 1909 he became a member of the Board of Managers of the 

 National Geographic Society, Vice-president in 1915, and President 

 of the Society in April, 1919; dying on December 30th of the same 

 year. 



A summary of his lifework is given in the Bulletin of the National 

 Geographic Society of October 16, 1919. An account of the Gulf 

 Stream work and results was given by ^Admiral Pillsbury in the 

 National Geographic jVIagazine of August, 1912, and in Hydrographic 

 Office publication No. 110, in 1894. A memoir on Charts and Chart- 

 making was published in Proceedings of the U. S. Naval Institute 

 No. 29, in February, 1894. An excellent portrait of the Admiral ap- 

 peared in the National Geographic Magazine, volume 37, p. 341, in 

 April, 1920. 



The Admiral was elected a member of this Academy, April 12, 1893. 



WlLLL\M HeALEY DaLL. 



