January 1, 1886 ] 



SCIENCE. 



3 



for the compilation of town, county, and state 

 maps of the utmost precision. Nor is the fact 

 lost sight of that in time it will become necessary 

 to have an absolutely correct map of the entire 

 area of the United States. Work of this character 

 has been for years in progress, and in its continu- 

 ance rests the only possibility of bringing har- 

 mony into what is now utter confusion. , 



All who have taken even the least cognizance 

 of the scientific methods systematically pursued 

 by the coast survey will experience no difficulty 

 in seeing that the uninterrupted exertions of 

 scores of trained observers and calculators are de- 

 manded in completing the thorough survey of so 

 extended a field as that of the Atlantic and Gulf 

 coast. Very few outside of those actually engaged 

 in such work take occasion to know the degree of 

 precision sought and attained in these investiga- 

 tions ; nor is it a matter of common information 

 that the work has so far advanced that the survey 

 of the Atlantic and Gulf coast is about nine-tenths 

 completed. The slightest knowledge of the neces- 

 sary conditions is sufficient to show that, even 

 when the entire extent of the coast has once been 

 charted, a large amount of work must continually 

 be done, in order to maintain the correctness of 

 the charts, and ' Coast pilots ' or sailing-directions. 

 Professor Hilgard estimates, that, in order to keep 

 up this work, a force of two parties will be re- 

 quired — one ashore and one afloat — in each of 

 five districts between Passamaquoddy Bay and 

 the Rio Grande. 



The entrance of the important harbor of New 

 York is kept under annual examination, in order 

 to keep track of the changes, and to control, if 

 possible, their causes. A complete re-survey of the 

 great thoroughfare of Long Island Sound is in 

 progress, as in time great changes have taken 

 place, and many localities have very much grown 

 in importance. Also thorough re-surveys are pro- 

 gressing in other waters as rapidly as the limited 

 appropriations ror this work will allow. 



The survey of the Pacific coast, between San 

 Diego (the Mexican boundary) and Fuca Straits, 

 with Puget Sound, is about three-fifths completed; 

 and the publication of charts, sailing-directions, 

 and tide-tables is proportionally advanced. The 

 same considerations in regard to future re-sur- 

 veys hold here equally with the Atlantic coast : 

 one re-survey of San Francisco Bay was made 

 about twelve years ago, and a new one is now 

 strongly urged. In the territory of Alaska, no 

 minute or exact surveys have yet been under- 

 taken, as the condition of the country does not 

 yet call for them ; but a good deal has been done 

 in the way of geographical exploration and hydro- 

 graphic reconnaissance^ while many charts of 



approximate correctness have been published, as 

 well as a volume of sailing-directions. Mention 

 must be made, in this connection, of the explora- 

 tions of the Gulf Stream, having for their object 

 the discovery of the laws which govern it, with 

 the view of taking due account of it in navigation 

 as an indication of the approach to our shores ; as 

 also of the practical researches into the distribu- 

 tion and laws of change of the earth's magnetism, 

 by which we have been enabled to ascertain the 

 variation of the compass along the coasts, as well 

 as over the whole country, — a knowledge equally 

 important to the mariner and to the land-surveyor. 



In no department of its coast operations is the 

 practical usefulness of the survey more apparent 

 than in its systematic researches and publications 

 relating to the safety of navigation. Foremost 

 among these are the thorough series of observa- 

 tions of the tides. In addition to this, advantage 

 is taken in the most practical way of all discover- 

 ies and developments affecting the safety of navi- 

 gation by the printing and wide circulation of the 

 series of ' notices to mariners.' During the year 

 1883-84, for example, twelve such notices were 

 published as warnings to navigators against newly 

 discovered or newly developed dangers. Also 

 the studies of officers of the survey in the depart- 

 ment of physical hydrography have led to results 

 of the highest practical importance in our com- 

 merce and navigation. 



In his late message to congress, the President of 

 the United States alludes once more to the thread- 

 bare subject of transfer of the coast and geodetic 

 survey to the navy department. Three years ago 

 the superintendent of the survey, in a letter to the 

 secretary of the treasury, reviewed the whole 

 ground in the most thorough and impartial man- 

 ner, concluding with the following points in oppo- 

 sition to this proposed transfer. They may be 

 advantageously cited here : — 



"1°. The present system, perfected nearly forty 

 years ago, has proved thoroughly efficient, eco- 

 nomical, and satisfactory to the country. It is 

 wise to hold fast to that which has been proved to 

 be good. 



"2°. It affords to the navy all the advantages that 

 can legitimately be claimed. It employs as many 

 of its officers in service afloat as can be advan- 

 tageously used in hydrography. The employment 

 of a larger number, in the event of a transfer, 

 would result hi training naval officers to be geode- 

 sists, topographers, chiefs of technical bureaus, and 

 in withdrawing their interests and habits from the 

 naval service proper. 



"3°. The efficiency of the service would suffer by 

 the loss of ambition and emulation, which exist at 

 present in a high degree, but which find no stimu- 



