18G 
GEOGRAPHIC LITERATURE 
ANNUAL REPOKT OK THE SUPERINTENDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 
COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 
This report is still in the hands of the Public Printer, but bj' the 
courtesy of Gen. W. W. Duffield, Sui)erintendent of the Survey, The 
National Geogiiaimiic ^Magazine is permitted to present its readers with 
the following summary of its contents : 
Tlie report covers the fiscal year ending June 30, 1895. It gives the 
progress of the work in the field and office with the customary detail, 
and the necessary references to several boundary surveys and other 
special surveys of precision of the class usually assigned to this bureau. 
Upwards of seventy-five parties were actively engaged in the various 
branches of the field operations. Work was carried on within the limits 
or on the coasts of sixteen states and territories along the seaboard and 
in nine states and territories in the interior. It included reconnaissance, 
base-line measures, triangulation, topography, hydrography, physical 
hydrography ; time, latitude, longitude, and azimuth determinations ; 
boundary-line surveys, geodetic leveling; magnetic declination, dip and 
intensity observations ; laying out meridian lines, gravity determina- 
tions ; tidal and current observations ; oyster-bed surveys, etc. 
Among the surveys of special importance are the completion of the 
topographic and hydrographic resurvey of Boston harbor and vicinity ; 
the beginning of the resurvey of Buzzards bay ; the continuation of the 
telegraphic longitude determinations in the southwest ; the progress on 
the traiLSContinental triangulation in Colorado and the oblique arc in 
Alal)ama; points furnished in aid of state surveys in Tennessee, Ken- 
tucky, New Jersey and Minnesota; the completion of the I’econnaissance 
of the Kio Grande from its mouth to El Paso; the completion of the re- 
survey of Pensacola bay and its tributaries ; the surveys for the location 
of the boundary line Iietween southeastern Alaska and British Columbia ; 
the survey of the California oblique boundary line and the topographic 
and hydrographic resurvey of San Francisco bay and harbor. 
Tlie line of preci.se spirit-levels from tidewater was continued to Kansas 
City, and the usual progress was made in surveying those portions of the 
coasts not yet fully charted, including the channels of Washington sound, 
the strait of Fuca, and the hydrographic development of the intricate 
channels of the .Alexander archipelago in southeast Alaska. 
The report records the death of Lieut. F. H. Crosby and four men en- 
gaged in the prosecution of the field work, who were drowned while 
attempting to land through the surf on the coast of Washington. This 
is commented upon as the most serious casualty that has hapiiened to any 
of the field parties of the Survey since the loss of the Walker in 185G. 
In accordance with the provisions of law, one of the assistants has con- 
tinued to serve as a member of the Mississippi River Commission, and 
another, by appointment of the President, is a member of the Interna- 
tional Boundary Commission, organized for the location of that part of the 
United States and IMexican boundary line extending from El Paso to the 
Pacific. At the request of the Secretary of the Navy two assistants were 
temporarily detailed, one for special triangulation in connection with 
