342 SURVEY OV THE COAST 



vey. The observations made in them could be compared 

 with each other, so as to render them independent of fo- 

 reign observatories. Still, various considerations might oc- 

 casion and favour the desire of placing one of these obser- 

 vatories in the city of Washington, as observatories are placed 

 in the principal capitals of Europe, as a national object, a 

 scientific ornament, and a means of nourishing an interest 

 for science in general. 



This observatory would then be the most proper place of 

 deposit for the standards of weights and measures, whicli 

 make part of the collection of instruments. 



The observatory will require a constant observer; the 

 duties of whom are evident from the nature of the instru- 

 ments and the object of the establishment, viz. to make ob- 

 servations of every plienomenon leading to the determina- 

 tion of time and longitude. When the position of such an 

 observatory shall be determined, I will have the honour of 

 submitting a plan of construction adapted to the object and 

 the locality. 



The wooden stands for the instruments, the boxes for the 

 bars to measure the base lines, and the tin cases to make 

 the pyrometrical experiments with, being objects of bulk 

 and inconvenient transportation, 1 preferred having them 

 made in this country. Their construction is necessary to 

 fit the instruments for actual use. As soon as this is done, 

 I should proceed to standard the bars for measuring the 

 bases, and to make the pyrometric experiments upon them. 

 It would be very desirable that 1 should be authorised to 

 make an expenditure of about eight hundred dollars for 

 these objects, as well as for signal splieres, and lamps fur 

 night signals, which I found it also better to have made in 

 this country. 



All these preliminary objects could be attended to this 

 winter, so as to enable me to begin, next spring, tlie first 

 part of the survey itself, viz. the reconnoitering of a part of 

 the coast, in order to project a part of the triangles best suit- 



