GENERAL REMARKS 35 



phical knowledge. The name stamped upon a place by tlie 

 first discoverer should be held sacred by the common consent 

 of all nations ; and in new discoveries it would be far more 

 beneficial to make the name convey some idea of the nature of 

 the place ; or if it be inhabited, to adopt the native appellation, 

 than to exhaust the catalogue of pubhc characters or private 

 friends at home. The officers and crews, indeed, have some 

 claim on such distinction, which, slight as it is, helps to excite 

 an interest in the voyage. 



" Constant observations on the tides, including their set, 

 force, and duration, the distance to which they carry salt 

 water up the rivers, their rise at the different periods of the 

 lunation, and the extent to which they ai-e influenced by the 

 periodic winds, by the sea currents, or by the river freshes, 

 form so prominent a part of every surveyor's duty, that 

 no specific directions on this subject can be necessary. Nor 

 is there any occasion to insist here on the equally important 

 subject of currents ; for it is only by a great accumulation 

 of data that we can ever hope to reduce them to regular 

 systems, or that we can detect the mode in which they are 

 affected by change of seasons, or influenced by distant winds. 



" The periods and limits of the monsoons and trade-winds 

 will naturally be a continual object of the Commander''s ob- 

 servation and study. It is true that he can only witness what 

 occurs during his voyage ; but besides collecting facts on this 

 and the last subject, on which others can hereafter reason, it will 

 be of immense advantage that he should endeavour to digest 

 them with the remarks of former voyagers when on the spot. 



" On the western coast of South America, for instance, some 

 skill is required in making passages at different periods, and 

 much scattered experience has been gained by seamen who 

 have been long occupied there ; but this information has not 

 yet been presented to the public in an intelligible form ; and 

 it seems to be the peculiar province of an officer expressly em- 

 ployed on a scientific mission like this, to combine that infor- 

 mation with his own, and to render it accessible to every navi- 

 gator. 



