376 hydrographer's department of the admiralty. 



Here 1 find one of the few allusions to individuals which 

 ap)>ear in the rei)orts I have had access to : — 



Rear Admiral Bayfield retires from tlie command of the survey of 

 the St. Lawrence, on which extensive work he has been engaged for 

 upwards of a quarter of a centur\ . It has fallen to few ofhcers to origi- 

 Tiate and bring to a close after so many years so extended and laborious 

 a work, where the surveyor had to contend with a rigorous climate in 

 winter and fogs in the spring and autumn, leaving but a short season in 

 which outdoor work could be executed. It has. however, been done in 

 a masterly manner, as more than 100 pubhshed charts and plans, com- 

 plete sailing directions, and a valuable table of geographical positions con- 

 nected with Quebec, Halifax and Boston most fully testify. 



In 1858 we have an account of the work on the Argyleshire 

 Coast. In the space of 90 square miles 13,000 soundings were 

 made, the greatest depth heing 97 fathoms. The cost of the 

 survey, including soundings, when conducted in the most eco- 

 nomical manner, is about £30 per mile of coast line. In the same 

 year the coast about the St. John's River was charted, and a 

 closer examination made of Table Bay. 



In 1859 we are told that the survey of the coast of Scotland 

 has occu])ied over 20 years, and will require five years more, 

 ihe cost, when finished, will not have been less than £250,000. 



In i8t)0 an error of 11 miles in longitude was discovered in 

 the charts of the Spanish coast near Bilbao, and the charts of 

 [-"alse Bay were corrected. Two shoal spots, about a mile South- 

 West of Cape Point, were discovered, and the Cape Point Light- 

 house installed, ddie first general chart of the Coast of China 

 was also ptiblished. 



In 1861 a cape on the North-East of Cuba was found toije 

 charted 20 miles of longitude from its true position, and in the 

 following year an important port in Sumatra was found to be 

 14 miles out in latitude. In this year the results of Captain 

 Durham's nine years' serivce in the Australian seas were pub- 

 lished. 200 charts, plans and drawings completed and in pro- 

 gress, 163 positions catalogtted, variation tested 2,410 times 

 afloat and 191 times on shore, 41 islands and 42 ocean reefs and 

 sunken shoals surveyed, 700 miles of the edge of soundings con- 

 toured, and 21, fabulous dangers erased from our charts. 



In 1863 Mossel Bay was surveyed, Vancouver completed, 

 anil a most interesting Japanese chart of their own coast 

 obtained, 



V.'duable not only as a correct map ( for wherever tested it has been 

 foxmd to be both trigonometrically and astronomically accurate to a 

 remarkable degree, though graduated in a peculiar and original manner), 

 but also as a work of art, illustrating the advanced stage attained by this 

 extraordinary people in surveving. which will compare favourably with 

 specimens of our own published in the beginning of the present century. 



In this year 138,503 charts were distributed, and a note of 

 relief is allowed to appear in Sir Roderick Alurchison's summary 

 of the surveys of the .\ustralian coasts: — 



