THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. 193 



ren of result, are now eagerly appropriated; and, by the 

 science and ingenuity of man, made to minister to the pur- 

 poses of human intercourse over the globe. The ocean, once 

 an obstacle, has become the high road of nations. If steam 

 has worked its wonders on the land, so it has also on the sea ; 

 and under a form surpassing, in grandeur of force and effect, 

 all the other operations of this great agent of human power. 

 Iron, that material which ministers in such endless ways to 

 the uses of man, has scarcely less efficiency on the ocean than 

 on land ; and we have at this moment in progress before our 

 eyes, gigantic applications of it to the building and propulsion 

 of vessels, both of war and commerce, such as the world has 

 never before seen. 



Acquiescing fully, then, in the name and distinction of 

 'Physical Geography of the Sea,' we may add that we 

 consider Captain Maury a worthy interpreter of the great 

 phenomena included under this title. Attached as Superin- 

 tendent to the National Observatory at Washington, he has 

 used this honourable position, with much zeal and intelli- 

 gence, in forwarding objects of singular importance to his 

 own country and to ours, and of general interest to all nations 

 of the world. He published some years ago his ( Wind and 

 Current Charts,' a valuable precursor of the present volume. 

 To his assiduity we owe that conference held at Brussels in 

 August 1853, in which were found representatives from Eng- 

 land, France, the United States, Eussia, Sweden, Denmark, 

 Holland, Belgium, and Portugal; occupied, at the very 

 time when war sternly impended over Europe, in organising 

 plans for those cooperative labours on the ocean; those 

 methodical records of winds, currents, tides, and temperature, 

 which provide for the peaceful interests and progress of 

 commercial navigation over the globe. Austria, Prussia, 

 the Hanse Towns, Spain, and Brazil, subsequently offered 

 their cooperation in the same great scheme. With observa- 



o 



