Vol. XIV, No. I 



WASHINGTON 



January, 1903 



JTTl 



Or 



ATIOHAIL 

 MBAZE 



IrH 



O 



THE U. S. COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY* 



By O. H. Tittmann, Superintendent 



FIVE years from now the Coast and 

 Geodetic Surve}^ may celebrate 

 the centenary of the act creat- 

 ing it, for it was in 1807 that Congress 

 passed ' 'An act for surveying the coasts 

 of the United States." The President 

 was authorized and requested to cause 

 a survey to be taken of the coasts of the 

 United States, in which shall be desig- 

 nated the islands, shoals, with the roads 

 and places of anchorage within 20 

 leagues of any part of the shores of the 

 United States, and also the respective 

 courses and distances between the prin- 

 cipal headlands, together with such 

 other matters as he may deem proper 

 for completing an accurate chart of 

 every part of the coasts within the ex- 

 tent aforesaid. He was also to cause 

 such examinations and observations to 

 be made with respect to Saint Georges 

 Bank and any other bank or shoal and 

 the soundings and currents beyond the 

 distance aforesaid to the Gulf Stream 

 as in his opinion ma}' be especially sub- 

 servient to the commercial interests of 

 the United States. 



To Professor Patterson, of Philadel- 

 phia, is due the credit of having urged 

 the undertaking, and to President Jef- 



ferson and Secretary Gallatin of having 

 interested themselves and given their 

 support to the suggestion of Professor 

 Patterson. 



In 1807 the coasts of the United 

 States extended from the eastern bound- 

 ary of Maine to the northern boundary 

 of Florida, for the latter still belonged 

 to Spain. The coast of Louisiana be- 

 tween the Sabine and the Mississippi 

 had recently been acquired, and gave 

 to the United States a small, if impor- 

 tant, strip of coast on the Gulf. These, 

 then, were the coasts which at that time 

 were deemed needful to be surveyed in 

 the interests of commerce. Not that no 

 charts existed ©f the regions in ques- 

 tion ; Des Barres, His British Majesty's 

 Surveyor General for the Colonies, had 

 begun the good work, which was inter- 

 rupted by the War of the Revolution, 

 but at best the results of his surveys 

 were meager, insufficient, and inaccu- 

 rate. 



ITS INCEPTION 



maj r be worth while to call atten- 

 tion to and to dwell for a moment on 

 e unusual but eminently practical and 

 s nsible measures that were taken to 



*An address before the National Geographic Society, November 21, 1902. 



