68 MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY 



that Maury's annual report contained materials for a 

 most interesting and valuable book. He warned him 

 that, unless the results of his investigations were thus 

 guarded by a copyright, he would have the chagrin of 

 seeing ''some Yankee bookmaker steal his thunder and 

 reap a fortune from it". By the next mail Maury was 

 advised of this. He at once became interested in the 

 undertaking and, with the advice of the Biddies, arrange- 

 ments were made with Harpers for the publication of 

 such a book. It was begun in the spring of 1854, and 

 finished and ready for the publishers by June 20 of the 

 same year. Maury was of the opinion that it was to be 

 his ^^ great work", and time certainly proved that he had 

 not overestimated its importance. 



The title of the book was taken from one of the chapter 

 headings in the sixth edition of his "Sailing Directions", 

 and was originally suggested to Maury by Humboldt,, 

 who wrote that Maury's investigations had produced an 

 amount of useful information sufficient, in his opinion, 

 to constitute a new department of science which he called 

 the Physical Geography of the Seas. The first edition, 

 published early in the year 1855, contained only 274 

 pages, and was dedicated "as a token of friendship and a 

 tribute to worth" to George Manning of New York who 

 had been of great assistance to Maury in the distribution 

 of the wind and current charts. In 1861, the eighth and 

 last American edition of 474 pages appeared, and at 

 about the same time an English edition was published 

 by Sampson Low, Son and Company in London. This 

 American edition was dedicated to William C. Hasbrouck 

 of Newburgh, New York "as a token of the friendship 

 and esteem, from boyhood till now, of his former pupil" ; 

 while the English edition was inscribed to Lord Wrottes- 



