670 



SCIENCE 



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



that of the United States engineers touch at many 

 points, but their respective spheres of duty are well 

 defined and separate. 



The great work done by the Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey in its hundred years of existence and the 

 traditions of faithful labor well performed will 

 always be an inspiration for further effort. 



The Lighthouse Service and its Eelation to the 



United States Coast and Geodetic Survey: 



Oeorge E. Putnam. 



All progressive maritime countries have recog- 

 nized their obligation to survey their coasts and to 

 light and mark them. When a country builds a 

 lighthouse or publishes a chart of its coast, it aids 

 the whole family of maritime nations, and such 

 works show an international public spirit. 



At the very beginning of our national govern- 

 ment an act was passed, approved August 7, 1789, 

 providing for maintaining the lighthouses. There 

 were then but eight lighthouses in operation within 

 the United States. From that small beginning has 

 grown the present Lighthouse Service of this coun- 

 try, the most eltensive lighthouse system under a 

 single organization in the world. It maintains 

 14,544 aids to navigation; it employs 5,792 per- 

 sons and uses 113 vessels in its work. 



Maintaining lights, fog signals, buoys and bea- 

 cons to guide vessels has required, in order to reach 

 the highest effectiveness, the utilization of avail- 

 able apparatus and the development of new appa- 

 ratus of a high order. There has been a continu- 

 ous and a steady advance from the time of the 

 first lighthouse in this country. 



An accurate and thorough hydrographic survey 

 of the coast is a necessary preliminary to the in- 

 telligent location of lighthouses and buoys and 

 beacons; in fact, without an accurate chart it is 

 always possible that a buoy or beacon may be 

 stationed so as to lead a vessel directly on to some 

 hidden and unknown danger. 



The lighthouse work and the coast survey work 

 have an important object in common; the purpose 

 of both is to protect mariners and keep them out 

 of danger, to give the shipmaster all possible help 

 to steer a safe course. One gives him the map 

 showing where the water is safe for his vessel, the 

 other gives him the light, fog-horn and buoy to 

 guide him over this course. 



These services cooperate in many ways. The 

 Coast Survey has made special surveys needed in 

 connection with selecting the location for light- 

 houses, and has determined accurately their loca- 

 tions. The Lighthouse Service promptly marks 



new dangers located in the course of surveys, such 

 as the wire drag work, and changes the position of 

 buoys and other aids as is shown to be necessary 

 by revised hydrography; it aids the Coast Survey 

 with any information obtained by its vessels. A 

 great amount of work is required in locating the 

 aids correctly on the charts, and in keeping this 

 information correct, and in this work there must 

 be close cooperation between the services. On a 

 single chart, that of New York harbor, there are 

 shown 299 aids to navigation. 



As both nature and the works of man are con- 

 stantly changing the coast line, channels and har- 

 bors, and as the course and needs of commerce also 

 are ever varying, it is evident that both the charts 

 and the beacons for the aid of mariners must ever 

 be corrected and modified; therefore the coopera- 

 tion in these two important works must always be 

 continued as in the past. 



Hydrography and Cliarts, luith Special Beference 

 to the Worlc of the United States Coast and Geo- 

 detic Survey: Geokge Washington Little- 

 hales. 



A century ago, the states and the people, through 

 their senators and representatives in Congress, au- 

 thorized the President of the United States "to 

 cause a survey to be taken of the coasts of the 

 United iStates in which shall be designated the 

 islands and shoals, with the roads or places of 

 anchorage, within twenty leagues of any part of 

 the shores of the United States; and also the re- 

 spective courses and distances between the prin- 

 cipal capes or headlands, together with such other 

 matter as he may deem proper for completing an 

 accurate chart of every part of the coasts within 

 the extent aforesaid. ' ' 



Congress has shown the strength of intention 

 underlying this enactment by making continuous 

 annual appropriations through the one hundred 

 intervening years and by authorizing as an aid to 

 the prosecution of so important a public task large 

 drafts from the army in earlier years and yet 

 larger ones from the navy as long as they could 

 be spared from the exacting needs of the battle 

 fleet. 



How was this justifiable, and how justifiable 

 was it? The results served the life of the nation. 

 No cargo is ever exported or brought home with- 

 out invoking the protection of this survey; no 

 ship ever enters or leaves our ports without re- 

 ceiving its aid. 



In proceeding oeeanward from the borders of 

 the continent, along which the triangulation or 



