352 CHARLES OTIS BOUTELLE. 



Having served creditably as Mr. Borden's chief assistant, he was 

 appointed by Alexander Dallas Bache, Superintendent of the U. S. 

 Coast Survey, to a position upon that work, in January, 1844. His 

 service was at first in the office, but his active temperament and 

 robust physique demanded less sedentary occupation, and his spe- 

 cial capabilities for the field were quickly recognized by his distin- 

 guished chief. His advancement was rapid. In 1846 he was made 

 an assistant in the Survey, and from that time forward gained 

 steadily in standing on the work, being intrusted with the charge 

 of important operations, which he conducted with his accustomed 

 energy, and with the professional skill and fertility of resource 

 always at his command. 



For some years he carried on the reconnoissance for the primary 

 triangulation upon the coast of Maine. He made the reconnois- 

 sance and selection of sites for three primary base-lines, and had 

 personal charge of the measurement of a primary base-line (the 

 Atlanta base) in Georgia. This measurement was three times 

 repeated as a test of accuracy, the line being measured twice in 

 winter and once in summer, with an accordance of results so 

 close that the greatest divergence did not exceed a millionth part 

 of the whole length of nearly six miles. He conducted the pri- 

 mary triangulation which was carried from the Atlanta base north- 

 ward and northwestward along the Blue Ridge, to connect with the 

 primary triangulation which was advancing southward and south- 

 westward from the Kent Island base, and had charge of the sur- 

 veys upon the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia. 



During this period the bent of his mind was shown by the im- 

 provements he introduced into the methods and processes of the 

 work; among these may be mentioned the form of preliminary base 

 apparatus described in the Coast Survey Report for 1855; his form 

 of tripod and scaffold observing signal, 1855; his experiments with 

 lights for geodetic night signals, carried on for several years, and 

 brought to a successful termination in 1880 by the adoption of the 

 magnesium lights and the student-lamp reflectors. 



In 1884 the charge of the Coast and Geodetic Survey office was 

 assigned to him, and after his relief from that duty he was placed 

 in immediate supervision of geodetic operations in the States which 

 had organized their own geological and topographical surveys. 



For a number of years he was a member of the board of commis- 

 sioners for tlie improvement of the harbor of Norfolk. 



On February 16, 1884, soon after taking up his residence in 



