MR. HAMER. 293 



for the purpose of improving our knowledge of the hydrography 

 of those seas, has often been the subject of my reflections. As 

 the representative of a district largely engaged in the whale fishery, 

 you (Mr. Reed) must frequently have seen from the reports of 

 masters of vessels engaged in that business, accounts of new islands 

 and reefs being frequently discovered, and which are either not 

 laid down on the charts, or so erroneously marked, that they can 

 give no security to the mariner. It is probable that not less than 

 five hundred of these islands and reefs have been marked with 

 sufficient accuracy by our whalers, sealers, and traffickers, of one 

 kind or another, to enable an expedition to examine the most 

 important of them, without much loss of time in seeking their 

 positions. This will enable the discovery vessels to do more, in 

 less time, than has probably ever been effected by a similar enter- 

 prise from any other country. The accounts given of the dangers 

 and losses to which our shipping is exposed by the extension of 

 our trade into seas but little known, so far, in my opinion, from 

 being exaggerated, would admit of being placed in bolder relief, 

 and the protection of government implored in stronger terms. I 

 speak from practical knowledge, having myself seen the dangers, 

 and painfully felt the want of the very kind of information in the 

 guidance of a vessel in those seas which our commercial interests 

 so muc"h need, and which I suppose would be the object of such 

 an expedition as is now under consideration before the committee 

 of congress to give. Indeed, the ivhole of this business, it seems 

 to me, is a plain and practical affair. The commerce of our 

 country has extended itself to remote parts of the world ; is carried 

 on around islands and reefs not laid down on the charts, among 

 even groups of islands, from ten to sixty in number ; abounding in 

 objects valuable in commerce, but of which nothing is known 

 accurately ; no, not even the sketch of a harbour has been made ; 

 while of such as are inhabited, our knowledge is still more imper- 

 fect. It would seem to require no argument to prove that a 



