66 A CENTURY OF PROGRESS IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES 



transportation established, minerals assayed, resources investigated — tasks for 

 every type of engineering. All scientific knowledge available at that time was 

 used for practical purposes. Science for science's sake was unknown in those 

 hectic years following the Gold Rush. Astronomy played a role only in so far 

 as the elements of the science were essential to the geodetic work necessary to 

 create the basis for material culture. 



In 1848 the United States Coast Survey, one of the most efficient Federal 

 agencies, then under the direction of Alexander Bache, Benjamin Franklin's 

 grandson, decided to start the survey of the Pacific Coast in the following year. 

 A hydrographic and a geodetic party, both well equipped, arrived in California 

 in 1849. Both came to naught; the lure of the goldfields proved to be too strong 

 for the underpaid employees of the Government. 



In 1850 George Davidson and a group of stalwart young members of the 

 Coast Survey arrived in San Francisco. They had volunteered to go to the 

 Pacific Coast out of cheerful, youthful exuberance. For almost half a century 

 Davidson was one of the leading figures in the evolution of the State. In the 

 development of the sciences of astronomy, geodesy, geography, and seismology 

 in California he dominated the scene. The Coast and Geodetic Survey, the Cali- 

 fornia Academy of Sciences, and the University of California owe much to this 

 indefatigable, universalistic, and, above all, practical scientist. 



The auguries, to be sure, were not very encouraging. The journey of the four 

 young geodesists — Lawson, Harrison, Rockwell, and Davidson — consumed one- 

 fourth of the year's allotment for the Pacific Coast work. In San Francisco they 

 soon realized that their salary of $800 per annum would not last very long if 

 they had to pay $7.50 for room and board per diem. They had to bivouac with 

 their 2,500 pounds of instruments in a 12 by 12-foot room. The water for ablu- 

 tion and for washing their shirts they carried from a spring four blocks away. 

 The only mechanic in the city charged them $900 for making four larue foot 

 screws and for tapping the cast-iron frame of the large transit instrument. 



Davidson resisted the temptation to start the survey of the Golden Gate and 

 San Francisco Bay. He realized that Beechey's survey was good and that other 

 points along the coast needed urgent attention. The islands of the Santa Bar- 

 bara Channel were badly located, the position of Point Conception was in error, 

 and thither the party embarked the end of June, 1850. There, at El Cojo. the 

 real hardships began. The Mexican cook promptly absconded with their horse 

 and the party had to cook their steaks and fiapjacks over a fireplace made of 

 three whale vertebrae and fed by dry cattle chips, and to do all other chores 

 necessary to maintain the most primitive essentials of human existence. 



But the work was done. Three months and a half were spent in astronomical 

 observations for the latitude and longitude of the station. The observations 

 included lunar transits, occultations of stars by the moon, and one solar eclipse. 

 In spite of the fog, Davidson could observe for sixty nights until he was "heartily 

 sick of starlight." Returning to San Francisco in October, the party worked 

 systematically on the reductions of the field observations. Their preliminary 

 work proved so satisfactory to the Superintendent of the Survey that he pro- 

 cured an extra appropriation for the party. Assistants and laborers could be 

 hired and the work at the second station. Point Pinos, could be carried on under 

 more agreeable circumstances during January and February, 1851. 



