HYDROGRAPHY, PAST AND PRESENT. 235 



the surveyors cannot always get small craft wherein to obtain soundings, 

 and however truly a coast may be delineated, the charts are almost 

 useless unless the soundings are correct. In fact, soundings, which 

 represent the depth and bottom of the sea, constitute the great point of 

 difference between a chart and a map, and it is upon their accuracy that 

 the character of the nautical surveyor mainly depends. The land work 

 may be done by the soldier or civil engineer, but the sounding is the 

 sailor's portion, requiring all the ready wit and tact of his profession. 

 Well-sounded localities may be safely navigated by means of the lead, a 

 simple but very important instrument, which is only too frequently 

 neglected. In thick weather the lead and line are to the sailor as 

 antennae to a beetle — though blinded by 'any vile congregation of 

 vapours,' he may still feel his way. Another great disadvantage of 

 detached surveying parties is that we lose that grand school for practical 

 nautical surveying, a ship, and the disciplined life of a man-of-war. 'No 

 man,' says Captain Hull, in his useful treatise on surveying, 'can be 

 expected to attain a trusted position as a nautical surveyor who is not 

 essentially a good officer and sailor, or, to speak more exactly, a good 

 pilot, knowing how to handle a body of men, the requirements of a ship, 

 and the room she wants to wear, stay, or anchor in. This knowledge 

 cannot be acquired under the ' one-man- and-a-boy ' system. It is in 

 ships only that men can discover 'the secrets of the sea,' or, to quote 

 Longfellow, 



Only those who brave its dangers 

 Comprehend its mystery. 



Now Mr. Laughton observes, in his work on nautical surveying, that 

 ' acquaintance with both the practice and theory of surveying is a 

 necessary part of the training of every naval officer, without which he 

 cannot have an intelligent understanding of the charts, the methods of 

 using them, and the confidence to be placed in them.' It is also a 

 favourite dictum of Admiral Ryder's that a fair surveyor must be a good 

 navigator. The battle of the Nile could never have been fought at the 

 hour it was if Nelson had not been a pilot as well as an Admiral. At 

 Copenhagen, also, he made a rough survey of the approaches, and waa 

 thus able to take his squadron close to the batteries. 



In the ' Navy List ' for August we find that only fifty-three officers 

 are now employed on surveying service, and if we exclude those working 

 under the Indian Department the total is reduced to forty-nine, or but 

 little more than half the number left by Sir Francis Beaufort a quarter 

 of a century ago. 



While the surveying service has thus been steadily retrograding, the 

 energy of the British merchant and shipowner has almost annihilated 

 distance. With your permission, therefore, we will just run round the 

 world, noting the surveyed and unsurveyed coasts as we pass them, and 

 I will try to make our voyage at least one of the shortest on record. 



Although the dark line naturally prevails over European coasts, yet 

 before we are out of the Bay of Biscay we come to the shading that 

 necessitates caution, the shores of the Peninsula being still only partially 

 surveyed. Madeira and the Canaries may be considered as done ; the 

 Cape de Verd Islands, however, require further examination. 



Passing the West Indies, where the greater portion of San Domingo 

 and Porto Rico require surveying, we first anchor at Bahia, a surveyed 



