GEOGRAPHIC LITERATURE 
187 
marking the speed trial course in Long Island sound, and the other for a 
survey on a large scale of the vicinity of the dry dock at Port Orchard, 
Puget sound. Assistants were detailed during the j^ear at the i-equest of 
the Governor of Virginia for surveys of the Virginia oyster beds, and a 
special survey of the Fox islands, Chesapeake bay, for the settlement of 
some questions of riparian rights, and at the request of the Commissioner 
of Fish and Fisheries to make further examination of the oyster beds in 
Mobile bay and vicinity. The detail of an assistant for the Massachusetts 
State town boundary survey also continued during the greater part of the 
year. The surve}'S for the location of the boundary between Alaska and 
British Columbia, that have been conducted by the Superintendent for 
several years past in his capacity as commissioner on the part of the 
United States, were continued during the season of available working 
weather, and the parties organized in the spring of 1895 completed all the 
work necessary for the compilation of the maps required. Under the 
head of special surveys, mention is also made of the act of Congress of 
August 1, 1894, requiring the Superintendent to lay out a circle around 
the new Naval Observatory for the deflection of the street extensions of 
the city ; the work was duly completed and the results with maps show- 
ing location delivered to the Navy Department. 
The report of operations in the otflce is given in great detail. The pub- 
lications of the Survej’’ relate essentially to the navigation of the coasts 
of the United States; but in the preparation of the tide tables for the 
new year a commendable departure seems to have been made by includ- 
ing ]>redictions for the principal ports of the w'orld. Seventy-five new 
charts were issued and one hundred and twenty-eight charts were revised 
and reissued. The new chart publications complete the series of the 
Atlantic and Gulf coasts on the uniform scale of 1 : 400,000, designed 
especially for the use of navigators, and the series on the coast of INIaine 
on the large scale of 1 : 40,000, designed for the safe navigation of the in- 
tricate jjassages of that broken and rock-bound coast. The distribution of 
charts during the year is reported at 51,450 copies, more than half the 
number having been sold by the agents in the princijial maritime cities. 
There were also distributed 114,000 copies of tbe monthly notices to mai i- 
ners, describing the important hydrographic develoi)inents and changes 
in aids to navigation on tlie coasts of the United States. 
The “ Bureau of Standard Weiglits ami ISIeasures,” whicii is also under 
the direction of the Superintendent (jf the Survey, reports that duplicate 
setsof.standanls liad l)een furnished the states of North and South Dakota, 
besides tlie customary routine work. Reference is also made to the new 
Kilo 1)alance of precision recently obtaiiu'd by the Burcuui. It is a dui)li- 
cate of the balance of the International Bureau and is tlie second brought 
to this country. The otlier is in the Smithsonian Institution and was 
used Ijy I’rofe.ssor Morley in tlie determination of atomic weights. The 
special features of these balances are auxiliary devices which enable the 
observer to note the oscillations of the beam from a distance and to inter- 
change the weights uiion the scale- pans without approaching the balance. 
The probable error of a single weighing with a load of one kilogramme is 
only ± 0“*.()2:i(). 
