LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 339 



ment. With reference to the instruments brought over, in his 

 report, which forms a supplement to your own, he discourses thus : 

 " I believe they comprise all that can in any way be useful for 

 scientific purposes on any expedition, and are all of them of the 

 very best construction" These assertions, which Humboldt would 

 not have ventured, are further confirmed in the next sentence, 

 where it is said, " I trust they will be found fully adequate to the 

 wants of the expedition" 



Among these much-extolled instruments " not to be procured 

 in the United States," I find mentioned two astronomical clocks, 

 one journeyman's clock, two astronomical telescopes, and forty- 

 one chronometers. I have made inquiry if any American maker 

 of astronomical clocks had been called on by you to give a proof 

 of his skill, but have been unable to learn that any such had, or 

 has been, encouraged to furnish a specimen article ; although it 

 cannot be controverted that astronomical clocks, unsurpassed in 

 accuracy, and which their manufacturers are willing to warrant 

 equal to any which can be imported from foreign workshops, 

 have for several years been made in this country. I am equally 

 at a loss to know for what reason the admirable reflecting tele- 

 scopes of Halcomb were wholly overlooked in your attention to 

 the outfit of that department which embraced the " principal ob- 

 ject" of the expedition. I have read detailed accounts of the su- 

 perior excellence of these telescopes from the pens of those in 

 whose opinions on such subjects I place the highest confidence, 

 attesting their accuracy, portability, and the ease with which they 

 may be managed It is the more astonishing that these matters 

 should have been neglected by you, inasmuch as you have so 

 long been a strenuous advocate for the patronage of domestic 

 skill and industry ! In like manner, I cannot help thinking that 

 at least one or two of those highly-finished box chronometers 

 made on this side of the Atlantic, which have been lauded and 

 honoured with premiums by men who have their eyes open, and 

 who try to keep up with the time of day, should have been or- 

 dered. It would have been a trial of skill to which our artists 

 would have brought a full share of national pride, and the expe- 

 dition being a national enterprise, they ought to have been grati- 

 fied. It was due to them, and equally due to the country. 



If, as you assert, the science connected with natural history 



