The Survey of the Coast. 63 



superintendency and has since been the law for the execution of 

 the work. To have a law specifying in detail the methods that 

 should be employed in prosecuting the surveys, that had been 

 drawn by a special commission of experts and approved by the 

 administration, relieved the Superintendent of much of the re- 

 sponsibility that had been borne by Professor Hassler, although 

 it did not put an end to the carpings of the critics, or their ad- 

 vocacy of the less expensive "nautical surveys." 



The reorganization provided for the employment of civilians 

 and officers of the Army and Navy to serve directly under in- 

 structions from the Superintendent ; thus securing for the service 

 the opportunity to procure the best talent from either civil or 

 military life. The civil element, it was assumed, would form a 

 body of experts for the prosecution of those branches of the 

 work not properly falling in the direct line of the military, and 

 experience has demonstrated that while the results anticipated 

 have been fully realized, the organization has not only proved 

 effective but conducive to the advancement of the survey in 

 many ways. The Civil War was a serious interruption, but alone, 

 proved the wisdom of the civil organization of the Bureau, On 

 the outbreak of hostilities the military element was necessarily 

 withdrawn for duty with the Army and Navy ; and it was not 

 until ten years after the close of the war that officers of the 

 Navy were again available, while officers of the Army, through 

 the exigencies of the Military service, have not returned at all. 



The organization was preserved through these fifteen years by 

 the permanent civil nucleus, and the work suffered no deteriora- 

 tion, but steadily advanced, notwithstanding that the larger num- 

 ber of the civilians were constantly employed during the four 

 years of the war with the Armies and Navy, in different capaci- 

 ties on the staffs of commanding officers ; and that the urgent 

 necessities of the government devolved additional labor, and 

 temporarily, a new class of work upon the office force in compil- 

 ing, draughting and publishing maps of the interior for the use 

 of the Armies in the field. And when finally, our Armies were 

 disbanded and our fleets reduced to a peace basis, and officers of 

 the Navy resumed the execution of the Hydrographic work, it 

 was but to step into the duties of their predecessors ; they had, 

 too, the additional advantage of the fifteen years' experience of 

 the purely civil administration of the Survey, during which time 

 the trained surveyors of the land had become equally expert as 



