66 The National Geographic Magazine 



ceptable in the middle of the last cen- 

 tury, for such a survey would not 

 now prove beneficial with reference to 

 any but the unexplored regions. 



The parts of the world that have been 

 completely surveyed and the parts about 

 which, from the standpoint of the ma- 

 rine hydrographer, nothing is known 

 are equally beyond our concern at pres- 

 ent, for on the one hand the needs of 

 commerce and navigation have been met 

 and on the other hand commerce and 

 navigation have as yet no needs. It is 

 to the vast extent of the coasts of the 

 world concerning which marine hydro- 

 graphic knowledge exists in varying de- 

 grees of incompleteness that we should 

 addre c s ourselves with a view of direct- 

 ing attention to the faults which may 

 be corrected and to the wants which 

 may be supplied. 



Leaving our own completely sur- 

 veyed Atlantic seaboard, we come at 

 once among the oldest colonies in the 

 Western Hemisphere and in a sea of 

 great present and prospective impor- 

 tance, upon coasts concerning which 

 there is no adequate information for the 

 construction of charts and the guidance 

 of shipping. The coasts of the Island 

 of Haiti, outside of the more important 

 ports and harbors, are very imperfectly 

 charted. Our knowledge of the har- 

 bors of Cuba has been lately much im- 

 proved, but the sections of coast con- 

 necting these harbors is not yet well 

 represented. No better portrayal of the 

 north coast of South America from 

 Panama to Trinidad has ever been af- 

 forded than that which resulted from a 

 cursory examination made in the early 

 part of the last century. There are 

 doubtless many places along this coast 

 where future surveying operations will 

 develop useful anchorages for the im- 

 provement of commerce and the safety 

 of vessels. The ports leading to many 

 of the important maritime centers of 

 Brazil have been efficiently surveyed, 

 but the general approaches to the coast 



are not completely developed. In the 

 Rio de la Plata navigation has been ren- 

 dered fairly safe, but of the intervening 

 coast, until the Strait of Magellan is 

 reached, it may only be said that, be- 

 yond several isolated local surveys lately 

 executed by the Argentine government, 

 nothing has been done since the general 

 examination in 1830. The efforts of 

 British and Chilean hydrographic sur- 

 veyors have effected much improvement 

 during the last generation in the charts 

 of the Strait of Magellan and through- 

 out the waters of Chile, although the 

 whole labyrinth of channels in southern 

 Chile is still inadequately known for the 

 purposes of the many steamers that are 

 continually passing through ; and with 

 reference to the entire western coast of 

 South America, the efficient surveying 

 operations have clustered around local 

 developments that were taking place 

 here and there, leaving no general sur- 

 vey of the whole coast by which it can 

 be laid down in sufficient detail. 



The surveys of the immediate ap- 

 proaches to Panama, although imper- 

 fect, are serviceable ; and the same may 

 be said of the Central American and 

 Mexican coasts which connect the Re- 

 public of Panama with the completely 

 surveyed Pacific coast of the United 

 States. Of the coastal waters in the 

 northeastern Pacific much more is 

 known in relation to the waters of the 

 British dominions than with reference 

 to the Alaskan coasts. Indeed the ma- 

 rine hydrographic surveys of Alaska 

 are as yet very incomplete, especially in 

 the Aleutian Islands, where many coasts 

 remain barely explored. Russian Si- 

 beria and Korea have for the most part 

 only been hydrographically explored ; 

 but nearly all of the coasts of the Em- 

 pire of Japan have been completely sur- 

 veyed and charted, and the coasts of 

 China, together with the China Sea, 

 where British surveying ships have 

 worked continuously for fifty years to 

 put in their right positions the multi- 



