HIS WIND AND CURRENT CHARTS 53 



and that, if it were not for the Nautical Almanac of 

 England or some other nation, absent American ships 

 could not find their way home and those in port could 

 not lift their anchors and grope to sea with any certainty 

 of finding their way back again. 



At about the same time Maury began the compilation 

 of a chart of the North Atlantic for the purpose of laying 

 down upon it the tracks of vessels in all seasons of the 

 year, with the currents, prevailing winds, temperature 

 of the water, etc. At first, he had the intention of 

 delineating the track of each vessel on the chart but he 

 soon saw that it would be impossible to do so on the scale 

 adopted (one inch to the degree), and he then resorted 

 to the plan of tabulating the results only instead of mark- 

 ing the track. It was not until the autumn of 1847 that 

 his researches, which had then extended over nearly 

 five years, had reached the point where he could publish 

 his first ''Wind and Current Chart of the North 

 Atlantic". This chart was founded entirely upon. in- 

 formation derived from the old discarded log books of the 

 Navy Department, for he had not then secured much 

 cooperation in the acquiring of new data. Maury com- 

 pared his work in the "quarry of log books" to that of a 

 sculptor, the single touch of whose chisel does but little ; 

 but finally like the completed piece of statuary the charts 

 speak for themselves and stand out before the compiler 

 "eloquent with facts which the philosopher had never 

 dreamed were lurking near". 



Early in the year 1848 Maury issued what he called 

 an "Abstract Log for the Use of American Navigators". 

 This was devised to secure the cooperation of navigators 

 in gathering information for perfecting his charts. It 

 contained but ten pages together with some blank forms, 



