INTRODUCTION. 147 



1807, the legislature having extended the law. During this time Stevens had 

 persevered in his efforts at home, and only three or four days after Fulton's suc- 

 cess was established, Stevens had a boat in motion with the required velocity ; 

 and as his experiments were entirely separate from those of Fulton, he seems 

 justly entitled to divide the honor which, by the popular judgment, is exclu- 

 sively awarded to Fulton.* 



The labors in hydrography of Edmund M. Blunt and his sons, deserve espe- 

 cial notice. The American Coast Pilot was first published in 1796, and was 

 then a small pamphlet of about eighty pages, containing an account of the chief 

 harbors in New-England, with sailing directions, and has been, by labors and 

 additions through forty years, augmented to a volume of about one thousand 

 pages, giving an accurate account and directions for navigating the eastern coast 

 of America, from Labrador to Cape Horn, including that of the West India islands. 



While the country, and especially this state, has been steadily rising into great 

 commercial and maritime importance, the government, until 1830, manifested a 

 total neglect of hydrographical science ; yet through the persevering enterprise 

 of Mr. Blunt, there are to be found in the Coast Pilot as full and complete 

 directions for the navigation of the American coast, as those furnished with the 

 aid of government in other countries. 



No actual surveys were made of this part of the American coast, until 1822, 

 when Mr. Blunt surveyed the harbor of New- York, and its eastern entrance. 

 In 1827 he extended his surveys to Long Island Sound, and made an elaborate 

 survey of the coasts of that arm of the sea, which has proved to be a survey of 

 the greatest utility to commerce. Some estimate may be formed of the extent 

 of this private enterprise, when it is recollected that the coast to be surveyed 

 was two hundred and fifty miles in length, and that many islands and bays are 

 comprehended in the survey. 



Since that time the great triangulation of the coast, by the authority of the 

 federal government, has been extended over the same coast, under the direction 



* Encyclopedia Americana. 



