246 Coast Survey of the United States. 
for instance, were observed by Dr. Bache, at Great Meadow sta- 
tion, near Taunton, and by two assistants, one at Portland, and 
one at a station near Baltimore ; and further than this the means 
of the work did not extend. But the records of the same phe- 
nomena are to be communicated from Cambridge, Brown Uni- 
versity, and Philadelphia. Major Graham also has kindly placed 
his observations, made at Governor’s Island, at the disposal of the 
superintendent. Collaterally with the same work in the office, 
scientific men, in private life, are engaged to report all the im- 
portant calculations of the survey. The security against error 
afforded by employing persons, to compute, who have had no 
connection with the duties of the field or the observatory, is 
well understood. 
The policy of the system now described, which gives support 
and encouragement to scientific men at home, which procures for 
the coast survey the use of good private instruments, and the as- 
sistance of accomplished observers and computors, which enlarges 
the sphere of labor in a way not less notable for its economy, 
than its practical benefits, cannot but receive universal sanction. 
It is intended to multiply, hereafter, observations at the principal 
stations of the work, of occultations and moon-culminating stars. 
The predictions of the former will be put in the hands of a 
distinguished mathematical professor. - 
Much remains to be completed in the area occupied before 
Mr. Hassler’s death. To bring up this old work is an unthankful 
oflice ; but this is to be done whilst the constant progress of the 
new i not interrupted. An assistant of Dr. Bache’s party is 
now employed in the Chesapeake. One of the two principal as- 
sistants is reconstructing the old triangulation in Delaware Bay. 
The important changes at Sandy Hook, developed by the te- 
newed survey of last year, demand further examination. The 
number of similar cases may be expected to increase every year, 
especially as the survey advances tothe southward. These facts 
are equally interesting to the geologist as to the navigator. 
There are few cases of change recorded in Mr. Lyell’s treatise 
more striking than that at Sandy Hook. ‘he investigation into 
their causes, belongs to the geologist, yet he must receive the 
basis of facts from the surveyor, and it will not be forgotten, that 
among these facts, are to be noted the local appearances, the di- 
rection in which the sea strikes the coast, the comparisons of soil 
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