344 Beviews. [April, 



this defect, as we are well aware how difficult it is for an unscientific 

 artist to reproduce on wood the designs of the naturalist. We are 

 not, however, disposed to be critical on a work which has been carried 

 out under circumstances of more than ordinary difficulty, and in 

 spite of physical obstacles with which we Englishmen are happily 

 unacquainted. 



THE UNITED STATES COAST SUEVEY.* 



Through the courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution, at Washington, we 

 have been favoured with the volume containing the Eeport of the Coast 

 Surveyors for 1861 — a year which will be for ever sadly memorable in 

 American annals. The Survey, which was commenced in 1832, had 

 been pursuing its quiet and peaceful labours throughout the whole 

 extent of coast line, extending from Passamaquoddy Bay in the State of 

 Maine, to the coast of Texas in the Gulf of Mexico, and along the coasts 

 of Oregon and California on the western seabord. At various points 

 throughout a line of more than 2,000 miles, small parties were en- 

 gaged in plumbing the depths, triangulating and sketching the inlets 

 of the coast, bays, and harbours, or determining the Lat. and Long, of 

 conspicuous points. No less than 9,050 of these had already been 

 tabulated, and so steady and uudeviating had been the progress made 

 in mapping the coast line, that in eight years (or in 18G9) the work 

 was intended to have been completed, when that fatal war which has 

 deluged with blood half a continent, broke out, and at once termin- 

 ated surveying operations along the whole Atlantic seabord, with the 

 exception of that portion belonging to the New England States. At 

 the stations along the coast of the Southern States some of the pro- 

 perty of the department was seized, and the liberty of the officers 

 placed in jeopardy. Two vessels were seized in Charleston Harbour, 

 and a few other slighter losses were sustained ; but, on the whole, it 

 may be said that the officers and men made good their retreat, having 

 received instructions to leave their stations whenever the attitude of 

 the State authorities appeared threatening. 



It is worthy of remark, that amongst all the naval officers engaged 

 in this department of the public service, not one joined the Confede- 

 rate cause ; and Professor Bache very naturally pays a high tribute 

 to their " loyalty," as many of them volunteered for active naval duty. 

 This, however, only corroborates what has been frequently ob- 

 served — that at the breaking-out of the war, the Northern side was 

 supreme in the naval arm ; while the Southern had the advantage in" 

 the superiority of officers for the army. Amongst the naval officers 

 engaged in the Coast Survey in 1861, was Commander D. D. Porter, 

 who recently commanded the two naval attacks on Fort Fisher, and 

 to whose further career the public are looking with some degree of 



* ' Eeport of the Superintendent of the United States Coast Survey for 1861.' 

 Washington Government Printing Office. 



