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PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



on the threshold of eternity ; yet at that inexplicable moment, when 

 I had a full conviction that I had already crossed that threshold, not 

 a single thought wandered into the future, I was wrapt entirely in 

 the past." In several passages of the deeply interesting statement 

 of Admiral Beaufort will be observed an idea which was afterwards 

 powerfully elaborated by Mr. Babbage in the Ninth Bridgewater 

 Treatise. 



When he took the command of the * Fredericksteen,' in 1811, he 

 was on the road to fame as an author. Sir. J". Barrow tells us that 

 Beaufort was selected out of the whole Mediterranean fleet to survey 

 an unknown portion of the coast of Syria. The result of this errand 

 was, not only a capital survey, but a historical review of the country, 

 as illustrated by its remains of antiquity. Beaufort's 'Karamania' 

 was, as a book of travels, sound, substantial, and learned (thanks 

 to the good classical education his father had given him), and full of 

 interest at once for the man of science and the scholar. It was this 

 book, with its discoveries and verifications of ancient sites, which 

 had prepared the way for the researches of Fellows, Spratt, and 

 Forbes, and more recently of Charles Newton, in Asia Minor, the 

 result of which has been that the Halicarnassian Marbles have 

 become part of the treasures of the British Museum. 



After much hazardous service against the pirates in the Greek 

 waters, Captain Beaufort weni: to work on the survey of Syria, in 

 the course of which he underwent extreme danger. In June 1812, 

 his party were surrounded by armed Turks led by a crazy dervish, 

 and he was wounded in the hip-joint so seriously that the wonder 

 was that he ever walked again. It was a severe struggle for life 

 itself; and when his ship was paid off, in the next October, he was 

 still undergoing much pain from the exfoliation of the bone. He 

 solaced his enforced leisure by work, preparing for the Admiralty 

 such a set of charts of the coasts of Asia Minor, the Archipelago, 

 the Black Sea, and Africa, as had never before been seen at the 

 Admiralty. They were so drawn, finished, and arranged as to be fit 

 for transference to the copper without any aid from the hydrographer 

 or his assistants. Such is the testimony of Sir John Barrow, who 

 recommended him to Lord Melville for the post of Hydrographer. 



This was in 1829. In 1823 Captain Hurd had died, and Captain 

 Parry was requested by Lord Melville to fill the post temporarily, 

 which he did twice, if not three times. After the resignation of the 

 Duke of Clarence as Lord High Admiral, Lord Melville again became 

 First Lord, and one of his objects was to fill the office of Hydro- 

 grapher with the best man that could be found, who should hold it 

 permanently. There were many applicants ; but by 1829 two names 

 only remained for choice — and one of them was not an applicant, 

 Captain Peter Heywood. Lord Melville therefore requested Sir 

 John Barrow and Mr. Croker to advise him. Sir John Barrow had, 

 as we have seen, selected Beaufort out of the whole Mediterranean 

 fleet for the survey in Asia Minor ; and that survey having been so 

 ably completed, he naturally named for the office of Hydrographer 

 the accomplished officer who had so much distinguished himself, 



