TJie Biirvey of the Coast. 71 



the public service that required such a measure of precision, it was 

 in the natural order of events that the Superintendent of the Sur- 

 vey should also be chai'ged with the maintenance of standards of 

 Weight and Capacity. The duplication of standards for the use 

 of the people was begun under Mr. Hassler, so long ago that the 

 system has really grown with the population. Wise legislation 

 has fostered the sentim.ent of uniformity until we are indeed 

 blessed, that wherever we may be in all our broad domain, a 

 pound is a pound, a yard is a yard, and a bushel is a bushel. 

 Manufacturers receive their standards from the Bureau, and in 

 special cases have their products tested and certified. And indi- 

 viduals engaged upon work of great refinement, seek the stamp of 

 the Bureau, also, upon the measures on which they must rely. 

 But so careful is the Bureau to preserve the integrity of its certifi- 

 cate, that the stamp is refused except on weights or measures of 

 approved metal and workmanship. Business men realize in every 

 day life the benefits that have been derived from the simple legis- 

 lation that inaugurated a supervision over the weights and meas- 

 ures of the country early in her history, though they may have 

 no conception of the endless annoyances they would have been 

 subjected to had the preservation and duplication of standards 

 not been provided for. 



The limited time assigned to me will not permit a detailed 

 statement of the researches made by the Bureau in all the dif- 

 ferent branches of science related to the practical conduct of the 

 work, much less a reference, even, to the many improvements 

 instituted in the practice of surveying. As in the case of the 

 observatories called upon to replace their defective instruments 

 with those more refined, to enable them to furnish star places of 

 suflicient precision to meet the improved method of determining 

 latitude, so has the demand ever been upon the experts employed 

 upon the work in all its branches. The Triangulation, Topog- 

 raphy, Hydrography, Astronomy and Magnetics have all passed 

 through several stages of development and improvement in 

 methods and instruments, to meet the requirements put forth by 

 those charged with the conduct of the work, that the fiill meas- 

 ure of harmony desired should be secured and that they might 

 supply the demands made upon them for information. Imperfect 

 results indicate defects to be remedied, and it is to the credit of 

 those who performed the labor, that they overcame one difficulty 

 after another as they were developed, until now the methods and 



