10 



ohMta*!™!^ 64 Durin g 1837 f° ur engraved charts were published by the 

 Depot from surveys made by the officers of the U. S. brig 

 Porpoise and schooners Maria and Badassah. Between this 

 period and the close of 1842 eighty-seven engraved charts 

 were issued, nearly all of surveys made by the IT. S. Ex- 

 ploring Expedition under Lieut. Charles Wilkes. The work 

 of engraving the plates for these charts, as, in fact, for all 

 engraved charts published by the Depot during its existence 

 of upwards of thirty -five years, was done under contract by 

 persons unconnected with the Depot itself. 

 Astronomical Lieutenant Grilliss was essentially an astronomer. Hesuc- 



mstruments ob- 



tainedfortheDe-ceeded in obtaining a portable 42-inch astronomical tele- 

 scope, a variation transit instrument, an 8-inch dip-circle, a 

 sidereal chronometer, and other astronomical instruments, 

 and commenced a series of observations on the culminations 

 of the moon and stars. But the unsuitable character of 

 the depot for such observations, the lack of space and of 

 proper instruments, soon became apparent. 



For a number of years the Board of Commissioners, to- 

 gether with Lieutenants Goldsborough, Gilliss, Wilkes, and 

 others, all deeply interested in the advancement of astro- 

 nomical science, and more especially in those branches of it 

 pertaining to navigation, had been zealous advocates of the 

 Efforts to estab- founding of an astronomical observatory. In the House of 



lishan astronom- ° v 



icai observatory Representatives, Hon. John Quincy Adams, among others, 

 had long sought to establish such an institution. At every 

 opportunity he made strenuous efforts to secure the favor- 

 able action of Congress upon the subject, but " so bitter was 

 the rancor of political partisanship at this time," says his 

 biographer, "and so intense the hatred entertained by th*e 

 then dominant secfeion of the country against Mr. Adams, 

 that opposition to the design became identified with party 

 spirit, and to defeat it no language of contempt or ridicule 

 was omitted." (Memoir of John Quiney Adams.) To such 

 an extreme was carried the opposition to Mr. Adams' cher- 

 ished project that in every appropriation made by Congress, 

 during several years, after carefully specifying the purposes 

 to which it was to be applied, the restricting words " and to 

 no other," were scrupulously added. 



steps Lading Failing to obtain the required legislation and appropria- 

 te the establish- , . , , , , „ , , °_ -,,,..; 



mentofapeima-tion, the advocates of the measure turned their united en- 

 ^harts "and in^ ergies towards a partial accomplishment of the same end by 



struments. 



