34 



SCIENCE. 



[X. S. Vol. XVIU. No. 445. 



TXiE yURVEY's PLxVCE UNDER THE GOVERN- 

 MENT. 



Oil the first day of next month the Coast 

 and Geodetic Survey will be transferred 

 from the Treasury Department, of which 

 it has been a bureau since 1836, to the 

 newly created Department of Commerce 

 and Labor. This is in accordance with 

 the logic of events. As long as the fiscal de- 

 partment of the government was charged 

 with matters pertaining to commerce the 

 survey found a proper place there, but 

 when the new department was created with 

 functions especially designed to care for 

 the interests of commerce, the survey, be- 

 ing primarily devoted to the interests of 

 •commerce, necessarily became a part of it. 



The Coast and Geodetic Survey is 

 charged with the survey of the coasts of 

 the United States, including Alaska, and all 

 coasts under the jurisdiction of the United 

 States; the survey of rivers to the head of 

 tide-water ship navigation ; deep-sea sound- 

 ings ; temperature and curi-ent observations 

 throughout the Gulf Stream and Japan 

 Stream flowing off these coasts; tidal ob- 

 servations, magnetic observations and grav- 

 ity research; determinations of heights by 

 geodetic leveling, and of geographical posi- 

 tions by lines of transcontinental triangu- 

 lation which, with other connecting tri- 

 angulations and observations for latitude, 

 longitude and azimuth, furnish points of 

 reference for state surveys and connect 

 the work on the Atlantic with that on the 

 Pacific coast. 



The results of the survey are published 

 in the form of annual reports, which in- 

 clude professional papers of value; bul- 

 letins, which give information deemed im- 

 portant for immediate publication; notices 

 to mariners showing changes on charts and 

 reported dangers affecting them ; tide tables 

 issued annually in advance; charts upon 

 various scales, including harbor charts, gen- 



eral charts of the coasts and sailing charts, 

 chart catalogues and coast pilots. 



ITS GEOGRAPHICAL DOMAIN. 



Such in general are its present duties, 

 but when the survey was first planned the 

 coasts under contemplation extended only 

 from the eastern boundary of Maine to the 

 northern boundary of Florida, and on the 

 Gulf coast the shores of the Louisiana Pur- 

 chase marked the limits of the survey's 

 authority ; later on its duties were extended 

 to keep pace with the expansion of the 

 country to the Floridas and the whole of 

 our present Gulf coast, to Oregon and Cali- 

 fornia, to Alaska, and still more recently 

 to the Hawaiian Islands, to Porto Rico and 

 to the Philippines. With the acquisition 

 of Oregon and California and the prosecu- 

 tion of surveys of their coasts arose the 

 necessity for a trigonometric connection 

 between the work on the Atlantic and 

 Pacific coasts, and Congress authorized the 

 extension of the triangulation inland for 

 that purpose, and for the purpose of aiding 

 topographic and state surveys. 



The acquisition of the vast territory of 

 Alaska added greatly to the duties of the 

 survey. Beginning at the historical par- 

 allel of fifty-four forty, which the popular 

 cry of 'fifty-four forty or fight' demanded 

 as the northern limit of our Pacific 

 coast possessions, the coast of Alaska 

 stretches northward, including the great 

 archipelago which ends at Cape Spencer. 

 Northward of that is Yakutat Bay and 

 Prince William Sound. The latter is as- 

 suming commercial importance and is, 

 therefore, now the locality in which the 

 survey is especially active. Farther north 

 is Cook's Inlet, a great bay Avhere the phe- 

 nomenal rise of the tide, which yet remains 

 to be investigated, rivals or exceeds that 

 of the Bay of Fundy. 



North of the Alaskan peninsula the 

 Kuskowim River empties into the Bering 



