January 16, 1885.] 



SCIENCE, 



49 



ally. The officer now in charge of the hydrographic 

 office appeared before yonr committee in person, and. 

 gave it a very clear account of the work his office is 

 actually doing. 



Besides the hydrographic work of the coast-survey, 

 — which is conducted, and has always been conducted 

 under existing laws, under the direction of the super- 

 intendent of the coast-survey, — this hydrographic 

 office is not only supplying corrected charts to the 

 vessels of the navy, but is collecting information as 

 to ice which endangers every ship or steamer of the 

 great lines which connect our northern ports with 

 Great Britain and France ; and it also publishes con- 

 stantly information as to changes in lights and buoys, 

 and discoveries by all nations of shoals and dangers 

 not laid down upon the charts in common use. It 

 publishes at short intervals, not only printed informa- 

 tion by bulletin sent to commercial centres in this 

 country, but pilot charts, especially of the North 

 Atlantic, giving the latest intelligence in regard to 

 currents and winds, and the location, when last seen, 

 of all floating wrecks and derelicts, and of the ice- 

 bergs and other floating ice which through the whole 

 spring, summer, and fall seasons, lie along the eastern 

 edge of the Great Banks, directly in the track fol- 

 lowed by hundreds of steamers and sailing-vessels, 

 carrying many thousands of travellers, passengers, 

 and immigrants, and the millions of dollars of our 

 exports and imports. 



This work of the hydrographic office is evidently 

 of great value and importance to our commercial 

 and business interests, and must save many vessels 

 from wreck, and many lives from destruction. Naval 

 vessels under direction and instruction of the hydro- 

 graphic office also survey foreign coasts and unsur- 

 veyed harbors and channels, aiding powerfully in the 

 extension and introduction of our commerce to such 

 coasts and harbors ; and they contribute to the knowl- 

 edge of the earth and its inhabitants by deep-sea 

 soundings, by observations of the currents and winds 

 and storms, and of the bottom of the ocean and of 

 its shores.. 



While this work is scientific work, your committee 

 is not prepared to recommend that it be detached in 

 any way from the control of the navy department ; 

 nor can they recommend that the hydrographic work 

 of the coast-survey, for over forty years conducted 

 so satisfactorily under the civil control of the coast- 

 survey, be separated from that organization before the 

 original survey shall be completed. After that is done, 

 perhaps the work of re-sounding and of re-examin- 

 ing may, without injury to the service, be committed 

 to the control of the navy department. Yet even 

 then correction and revision of the coast-survey 

 charts will require some co-ordination, some author- 

 itative connection between the coast-survey office 

 and the parties and vessels engaged in these re-ex- 

 aminations for correction of our coast charts. 



From the terms of the act under which your com- 

 mittee is considering this subject, it may be inferred 

 that the principal question affecting the hydrographic 

 office, on which an opinion is desired, is that of its 

 consolidation with the hydrographic work of the 



coast-survey. The reasons for the consolidation of 

 these two works under the navy department have 

 been urged with force by the secretary of the navy 

 in his last two annual reports. But there are also 

 cogent reasons on the other side of this question. 

 The coast-survey was specially organized to secure 

 the harmonious co-operation of civilians, officers of 

 the navy, and officers of the army, each in his own 

 department, and yet in a single well co-ordinated 

 work. No scientific department of the government 

 has worked more successfully through the forty years 

 in which this organization has been in operation. 

 Each of the three branches thus harmoniously co- 

 operating has received the benefit of the skill and 

 professional experience of the other. 



An organization of this sort should not, while its 

 work is going on, be disrupted, except for very strong 

 reasons affecting its efficiency. We would also ad- 

 vert, in illustration of the advantages which our 

 military and naval officers have derived from their 

 connection with the coast-survey, to the brilliant list 

 of military and naval men during the civil war, who 

 derived a very important part of their professional 

 training from their experience on that work. Such, 

 a list would include an array of professional leaders 

 which it would be difficult to collect from any other 

 associated body of men. We suggest the names of 

 Porter, the Rodgerses, of Meade, and of Humphreys. 

 Many others might be added, who, after service on 

 the coast-survey, rose to high employments in the 

 army and navy. 



While, therefore, your committee is not prepared 

 at the present time to recommend the proposed con- 

 solidation, it does not conceive that congress should 

 adopt measures looking to the separation in per- 

 petuity of the two branches under consideration. 

 The policy of the coast-survey should, we conceive, 

 be directed towards the completion at the earliest 

 possible date of the survey of our coast-line. Its 

 main operations will thereafter be confined princi- 

 pally to the interior, and then the policy of consoli- 

 dating its hydrography with the work of the naval 

 hydrographic office will be open for consideration. 

 We are therefore of opinion that the hydrographic 

 office of the navy department is worked with all due 

 efficiency as it is now organized, and that no change 

 is at present necessary in its relations to the govern- 

 ment. 



Preliminary to our recommendations as to the 

 other three works upon which your committee is 

 called upon to report, it desires to present some gen- 

 eral views respecting the working of the departments 

 of the government. We conceive it desirable that 

 there should be a clear understanding as to what 

 sorts of scientific investigation may be undertaken 

 by government organizations. We conceive it to be 

 a sound principle that congress should not under- 

 take any work which can be equally well done by the 

 enterprise of individual investigators. Our leading 

 universities are constantly increasing the means of 

 scientific research by their professors and students ; 

 and, while the government may with propriety en- 

 courage and co-operate with them, there is no reason 



