Mat 7, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



407 



batrachian had become, as was naturally expected, 

 very much desiccated. It is very strange with 

 what persistence such myths and fables retain 

 their hold on popular credence. Men of high 

 intelligence will aver their belief in petrified 

 human bodies, and we have known a shrewd 

 business-man to exhibit what he firmly believed 

 was a large mass of fossil buffalo flesh, sinews, 

 muscles, blood and all. What more natural thing 

 could there be than the finding of a toad or bat, 

 dead, hibernating or active, in the crevices of a 

 coal-mine? and yet, doubtless, to one wholly un- 

 acquainted with geological and zoological prin- 

 ciples, a carboniferous fossil fish or living bat 

 seems equally inexplicable and wonderful. Such 

 fanciful flights of imagination might pass unno- 

 ticed, were they not so industriously circulated in 

 the columns of even the highest class of metro- 

 politan newspapers. 



THE COAST SURVEY AND THE NAVY. 

 The latest argument for the transfer of the 

 coast survey to the navy department is embodied 

 in a paper by Lieutenant Dyer, U. S. N., recently 

 published in the Proceedings of the U. S. naval 

 institute. A very slight examination of this pro- 

 duction shows that the author travels over an easy 

 and well-trodden path instead of grappling with 

 the real difficulties of the question. Nothing is 

 easier than to demonstrate to the satisfaction of 

 any writer who chooses to espouse the cause, that 

 the coast survey ought to be turned over to the 

 navy department. If nothing more were neces- 

 sary than a "Be it enacted, etc., that the hydro- 

 graphic work of the coast survey shall be trans- 

 ferred to the navy department," the problem 

 would be a very simple one. It is to this simple 

 form of it that all the arguments heretofore 

 brought forward by the navy department have 

 been directed. 



Fault can be found with every system of public 

 administration; and the thought, "How much 

 better we could manage things if congress would 

 put us in charge of them ! " will be prevalent so 

 long as human nature remains as it is. The real 

 difficulties of the question begin when we attempt 

 to decide just what work, what records, and 

 what appliances shall be transferred to the navy 

 department, and how the navy department shall 

 utilize the appliances and carry on the work. 

 One difficulty met with at the very start is found 

 in that custom of the naval service which requires 



that almost every officer, certainly every young 

 and energetic officer, shall change his duty at the 

 end of every three years. Howsoever well a 

 cadet at Annapolis may be trained in the theory 

 of marine surveying, he cannot possibly acquire 

 at the academy that experience in practical work 

 of any kind which is necessary to its effective 

 prosecution. His first year, perhaps his first two 

 years, in the work of the survey, would be very 

 largely taken up in learning how to do it, so that 

 he would hardly have become an expert before 

 he must leave to keep watch on board a ship of 

 war. Of course, we refer here to the more diffi- 

 cult and technical work of chart - construction, 

 and not to such matters as running a line of 

 soundings. It would therefore be a necessity of 

 the service that a permanent corps of skilled 

 map-makers should be organized, or that a part 

 of the existing corps should be transferred. Even 

 then it would be contrary to naval custom to 

 allow these civilian assistants to hold any other 

 than subordinate positions ; and all branches of 

 the direction, from the head of the office down, 

 would be intrusted to men who were continually 

 changing. 



This is a consideration which would have to be 

 kept in view in deciding what work should be 

 transferred. One important function of the sur- 

 vey is the study of the effect of tidal and other 

 action upon harbors. We all know that most of 

 our harbors are in a continual state of change ; 

 and the study of the causes of such changes can be 

 effectively prosecuted only by experts who make 

 it a considerable part of the business of their 

 lives. Can the navy be relied upon to furnish 

 such experts? Tidal observations at numerous 

 points along the coast form an essential part of 

 the work. Will they be effectively kept up under 

 the continual changes of naval administration ? 

 Can the records of the coast survey which pertain 

 to hydrography be separated from the others and 

 transferred to another department without any 

 inconvenience ? If not, can the navy department 

 get along without them, and not waste labor in 

 repeating work already done ? Can a portion of 

 the draughtsmen and engravers be transferred, or 

 must new men be employed in their places ? 



We suggest these questions, not claiming that 

 their solution presents insurmountable difficulties, 

 but only as showing where discussions should be 

 directed in order to be effective. Such general 

 considerations as Secretary Chandler and the naval 

 officers have presented on the subject may be very 



