49 



formation concerning the ports of Tampico, Tuspan, and 



Vera Cruz, and notes on the changes that had taken place 

 in the harbor of Pensacola, were also received from the 

 Alliance, under Commander Yates. 



The Wyoming - , Commander Watson, on the European 

 Station, collected information concerning- a number of Med- 

 iterranean ports ; and the Vandalia, Captain Meade, for- 

 warded similar information in regard to numerous West 

 India ports. 



At the beginning of the year a party had been organized Expedition sent 

 in the Hydrographic Office for the purpose of continuing by telegraph the 

 the determination of longitudes by telegraph. This party places in the East 

 was again placed under the command of Lieut. Commander 

 F. M. Green, who had been for some time in charge of the 

 Department of Longitudes of the Office. 



The Palos, attached to the Asiatic Squadron, was turned 

 over to Lieutenant-Commander Green and his party, and 

 by the close of 1881 they had established the geographical 

 positions of a number of prominent places on the east coast 

 of Asia aud in the East India Islands. 



While all these reports had been received by the Hydro- want of funds 

 graphic Office, the want of adequate funds for that purpose p°roperiythewo?k 

 had limited their publication. Only a comparative few of 

 the results of surveys were published, such as the imme- 

 diate needs of the commercial world imperatively demanded, 

 and five-sevenths of the total number of these were produced 

 by the cheap and unsatisfactory process of photolithog- 

 raphy. In spite of the repeated and urgent appeals of the 

 Hydrographer, the Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, and 

 the Secretary of the Navy, for reasonable appropriations 

 for carrying on the work of the Office, the policy of Congress 

 seemed to be to place the American naval and merchant ma- 

 rine under the humiliating necessity of depending upon the 

 hydrographic offices of foreign powers for the means of 

 safely navigating the oceans. 



A comparison of the issues of the British and the French comparison of 

 hydrographic offices with those of our own for this year French^and of 

 shows that, while the British published two thousand seven without- own? 

 hundred and fifty-five and the French three thousand one 

 hundred and fifty-seven engraved charts, the United States 

 sent out but two hundred and five. The results of impor- 

 tant surveys, and the discovery of dangers to navigation, 

 could not in justice to humanity be allowed to remain un- 

 1135;} H o 4 



