MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY. 467 



brought up for the first time were the adoption of steam as a 

 motive power; great-circle sailing; the establishment of navy 

 yards and forts at Memphis and Pensacola ; the use of blank 

 charts on board public cruisers; the Gulf Stream and its 

 causes ; the connection of terrestrial magnetism with the circu- 

 lation of the atmosphere ; and a ship canal from the Illinois 

 River to Lake Michigan. The papers gave their author fame, 

 and secured respect for his opinions on naval questions. Cer- 

 tain journals even urged his appointment as Secretary of the 

 Navy. He was placed in charge of the Depot of Charts and 

 Instruments at Washington, an office which was developed into 

 the Naval Observatory and Hydrographical Department. " No 

 man," said Senator John Bell, " could have been found in the 

 country better fitted than Maury for this difficult duty ; and he 

 worked with the zeal and energy that were expected of him." 



One of Maury's first enterprises in this office was the com- 

 pilation of his wind and current charts and sailing directions. 

 He had already, as sailing master of the Falmouth, in 1831, 

 observed the want of trustworthy information concerning the 

 winds and currents encountered by mariners. He then re- 

 solved, if he ever had opportunity, to compile such information 

 from the store of old log books in the Hydrographical Bureau 

 of the Naval Department. This he now did, and his charts 

 and sailing directions were furnished to the masters of vessels 

 bound for foreign ports, who in turn supplied the results of 

 their own observations. The most favourable reports came in 

 of the value of the work, and it was illustrated by some then 

 really wonderful incidents. 



The fact was demonstrated in American and English jour- 

 nals that, by the mere shortening of voyages they made possi- 

 ble, these charts effected a very great saving in the expense of 

 commerce between distant ports. Testimony was repeatedly 

 borne to their value in the annual reports of the Navy Depart- 

 ment and of congressional committees. Secretary Dobbin re- 

 ported, in 1855, that other maritime nations, appreciating the 

 value of this plan of investigation, had united in a common 

 system of observations for its further prosecution ; and that it 

 was suggested by Lieutenant Maury that the same system of 

 meteorological research, " if extended to the land, would afford 

 for the agricultural interests of the country, and for science 

 too, results quite as important as those which commerce and 



