34° 



NATURE 



[August 9, 1888 



the somewhat austere and unflinching determination of 

 the latter ; and it was by the rare union of these two 

 qualities that he was enabled to vivify the dry statistics 

 which, until his arrival, lay buried in the log-books on 

 the shelves of the Hydrographic Bureau at Washington, 

 like the ooze at the bottom of the Atlantic. 



An accidental fall from a tree, early in life, took him 

 from the farm to school ; and a subsequent fall from a 

 stage-coach, which permanently crippled him, appears to 

 have exercised a still greater effect on his career by divert- 

 ing him from his active physical service in the American 

 Navy, to the mental study of the scientific branches of 

 the profession. His appointment to the Naval Office 

 at Washington, mainly through the publication of his 

 anonymous " Scraps from the Lucky-bag," on naval 

 reform, led to its subsequent development into what 

 is now the world-known National Observatory and 

 Hydrographical Department of the United States. Here 

 it was that he inaugurated his " sailing directions," 

 and elaborated his famous " wind and current charts," 

 the absolute commercial value of which, in shortening 

 voyages, was soon universally recognized, though, as 

 usually happens, most tardily by his own country, where, 

 though a Bill for remunerating their author to the 

 extent of ^5000 appears to have been brought forward 

 (unknown to Maury) in January 1855, in the following 

 month he was virtually placed in official disgrace, by 

 being retired from the Active Naval List and having his 

 salary reduced to ,£300. 



This manifest injustice to a man, whose mind, if not 

 body, was actively engaged in the highest branches of 

 naval service to his country, was, after persistent vindica- 

 tion of his rights, repaired in 1858, when he was pro- 

 moted to the rank of Commander, with back pay from 

 the time of his retirement. 



While tabulating the observations for his charts, Maury 

 fascinated the world by the publication of the "Physical 

 Geography of the Sea and its Meteorology," a book 

 which, although some of its conclusions — such as an 

 open sea surrounding the North Pole, and the crossing 

 of the winds at the calm belts — have been found to be 

 untenable in the light of more recent facts and research, 

 still remains substantially trustworthy, and certainly un- 

 equalled by any modern treatise embracing the same 

 subjects. It would be difficult to adequately estimate the 

 immense contemporaneous and subsequent value of such 

 a work, written in the charming and enthusiastic style 

 which characterized all its author's productions. The 

 present writer traces with gratitude his first attraction to 

 physical geography and meteorology to this delightful 

 book, of which most truly it can be said, that it realized 

 Matthew Arnold's ideal combination, " sweetness and 

 light." 



By this book, Maury not only taught the world, but 

 he pleased it at the same time, and he accomplished 

 this rare result, without pandering in any way to mere 

 popular taste, or forsaking the platform of truth. His 

 popularization of a subject until then hardly dreamed of 

 as a science resulted in the greatest achievement of his 

 life, viz. the assembly, chiefly through his instrumentality, 

 of the International Meteorological Congress at Brussels, 

 in 1853, which marked the commencement of the present 

 co-operation of nations in the work of both marine and 



land meteorology. Regarding the latter, indeed, Maury 

 uttered a prediction, on p. 350 of his " Physical Geo- 

 graphy," to the effect that " the greatest move that can 

 now be made for the advancement of meteorology is to 

 extend this system of co-operation and research from the 

 sea to the land, and to bring the magnetic telegraph 

 regularly into the service of meteorology." 



At the present time, when the old question between 

 the " cyclonologists " so-called and the " aspirationists " 

 seems likely to be renewed by M. Faye and some of 

 his disciples, it is interesting to notice that Maury never 

 accepted either the purely circular doctrine of Reid, or 

 the purely radial theory of Espy, but agreed with Thom 

 and Redfield in thinking that the wind in a true cyclone 

 blows in spirals, and he gave excellent reasons for his 

 belief. 



Maury's study of marine meteorology and physical 

 geography not merely aided commerce by shortening 

 passages, but enabled him to give material assistance to 

 the laying of the first Atlantic cable to Europe ; and, in 

 fact, it was to his prediction of the " telegraphic plateau," 

 and acute suggestion of a cord instead of heavy cable 

 for the deep-sea portion, that the ultimate success of this 

 enterprise was mainly due. From the sea, Maury turned 

 his attention to the Great Lakes and the land, and his 

 ardent espousal of the cause of agricultural meteorology, 

 and the lecturing tours he made on behalf of this subject 

 in all parts of the States, not only led to the establishment 

 of the present magnificent Weather Bureau of the United 

 States, but incidentally to his own decease through the 

 fatigue and exposure thus encountered. 



Maury's early religious training and temperament ap- 

 pear to have exercised a large influence on his public and 

 private life. His physical geography is illustrated by 

 frequent extracts from the Book of Job, and is instinct 

 with the same spirit which prompted and pervaded the 

 memorable Bridgwater Treatises. The following extract 

 from his address to the University of the South will 

 indicate this phase of his mind : — 



" Astronomy is grand and sublime, but astronomy 

 overpowers with its infinities and overwhelms with its 

 immensities. Physical geography charms with its won- 

 ders, and delights with the benignity of its economy. 

 Astronomy ignores the existence of man ; physical geo- 

 graphy confesses that existence, and is based on the 

 Biblical doctrine that the earth was made for man. 

 Upon no other theory can it be studied — upon no other 

 theory can its phenomena be reconciled." 



The Civil War unfortunately destroyed the continuity 

 of Maury's work at Washington, and altered the whole 

 course of his subsequent life. Impelled by a spirit of 

 pure patriotism towards the State of Virginia which had 

 reared him, he threw up his post in the North, and 

 devoted himself to the Southern cause. No one who 

 reads the life before us, and his "vindication of the South 

 and of Virginia " in the appendix, can doubt the pure 

 unselfishness of his motives. He had everything to lose, 

 and nothing to gain, from a material point of view, by 

 his action, and well he knew it. Essentially a man of 

 peace, and deeply attached to his work at Washington, i 

 we cannot but admire his voluntary resignation of all to j 

 a sense of duty. 



His scientific abilities being directed into a new chan- 





