668 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII, No. 1115 



calling attention to a few of its needs. Suppose 

 some day, as many experts think probable, the 

 Caribbean Sea should become the base of a great 

 naval warfare. Florida undoubtedly would become 

 a center of American activities. Her inland water- 

 ways, so far as they are fit, would be serviceable 

 for supply and munition ships, and for small ves- 

 sels of the navy. We can not count too much on 

 these waterways now, for they have not been im- 

 proved as they should have been. But what lay- 

 man ever knew, or knows now, that the Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey has 172,000 square miles of hydro- 

 graphic surveying ahead of it before all sides of 

 Florida are covered. 



Our needs by way of protection against reefs 

 and shoals around the Florida coast are far more 

 extensive than they are in the Alaskan waters, and 

 yet in Alaska but eight per cent, of the navigable 

 waters have been surveyed to the satisfaction of the 

 bureau. 



The dangers of Cape Hatteras are known to 

 every American, and the currents that abound on 

 that treacherous coast demand the frequent in- 

 spection and oversight of the chart-makers. Just 

 above Hatteras^ along the North Carolina coast, 

 the shore line is constantly changing, as is well 

 known. Inlets close and open according to the 

 whims of nature. It is an interesting historical 

 fact that no living man is now able to locate the in- 

 let through which passed the Sir Walter Raleigh ex- 

 pedition, which made the first English settlement on 

 Roanoke Island in 1584. That the vessels of 

 Amadis and Barlow entered Croatan Sound is well 

 established, but the channel through which they 

 came has long since disappeared. 



The closing of inlets as far north as New York 

 has not been of infrequent occurrence in the course 

 of the last century, nor has the accretion or reces- 

 sion of land where the waves and storms have 

 played upon it. 



Near Chincoteague Inlet, Virginia, is a com- 

 paratively new harbor, known as the Assateague 

 Anchorage. It owes its existence to a natural 

 change in the coast line at the south end of Assa- 

 teague Island, which has converted an exposed 

 bight into a well-protected and much frequented 

 harbor. This harbor is preferred by local shipping 

 to some of the artificial harbors of refuge along 

 the coast. It has an added importance because it 

 is the only harbor between the entrances to the 

 Chesapeake and Delaware bays, but it must be ex- 

 amined frequently in order that the shifting sands 

 may be so charted as not to deceive the mariner. 



Advancing along the coast to the New Jersey 



and Delaware shores, where shipping increases, it 

 is observed that at the present time the Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey stands in need of funds to survey 

 and resurvey about 13,000 square miles off shore. 

 There are shoals constantly forming on these 

 shores which should be examined and charted in the 

 interests of navigation. This is an area which is 

 presumed to have passed the pioneer stage, but it 

 evinces that same disposition to conform to the 

 forces of nature that prevail in less frequented 

 waters. 



More remarkable than this, however, is the situa- 

 tion with respect to the waters approaching the 

 great metropolis of New York. The Rivers and 

 Harbors bill, now pending in the House of Repre- 

 sentatives, carries an appropriation of $700,000 to 

 extend and deepen the channel from the sea to the 

 Brooklyn Navy Yard, a very important work that 

 should have been completed long ago. The reason 

 for this appropriation is that there are obstructions 

 in the channel, possibly of rock foundation, which 

 make navigation perilous for the dreadnaughts of 

 the navy. When vessels of 12 feet draft were 

 sailing into New York harbor it made no differ- 

 ence about this channel, but the increase in the 

 size and draft of vessels has made a difference, 

 and the lead and the drag must be invoked again. 



There are rocks in the East River, as every one 

 knows. Some of them are of the pinnacle type, and 

 strange as it may seem have only recently been lo- 

 cated. As late as 1915 the wire drag was used by 

 the Coast and Geodetic iSurvey in the East River, 

 locating certain dangerous shoals which are a men- 

 ace to navigation, and which in the event of war 

 would seriously handicap our battleships. If com- 

 mercial New York, exposed as it is to the guns of 

 a hostile fleet, is just beginning to make discover- 

 ies of new formations and obstructions in its water- 

 ways, it is high time that the people elsewhere 

 along our coast lines should wake up to the impor- 

 tance of increasing and developing the Coast and 

 Geodetic service. 



I have not time to further discuss the work 

 along the Atlantic coast except to say that the 

 Maine waters abound in rocks and shoals. The 

 wire drag service is badly needed there, as it is all 

 along the New England coast. The report of a re- 

 cent survey in the vicinity of the Rockland Naval 

 Trial Course discovered no less than four shoals, 

 on any one of which a battleship might have been 

 seriously damaged. It is noteworthy also that in 

 a survey of the approaches to Narragansett Bay, 

 one of our most beautiful sheets of water, evi- 

 dences of hidden formations were discovered. As 



