440 
ROBERT STANTON AVERY. 
ing machines it was practically impossible to employ the har¬ 
monic tidal constants for prediction, owing to the amount 
of labor involved; but the construction by the Survey of 
Ferrel’s tide machine rendered it easy to predict from har¬ 
monic constants, and therefore stimulated the introduction 
of the harmonic analysis. His official writings are con¬ 
tained in the annual reports of the Coast Survey. 
Mr. Avery was slightly above the medium height and of 
that rough, rugged appearance often seen among the hardy 
sons of New England. He was of a very quiet, modest, and 
unassuming manner, somewhat shy of strangers, yet very 
pleasant and companionable to those who were intimate with 
him. He was a man of most amiable and sweet temper, for, 
during more than twenty years of intimate association with 
him, both officially and in his home, the writer never wit¬ 
nessed any manifestation of anger or resentment, nor even 
the appearance of being provoked over any of the many 
petty occurrences that usually exasperate less happily en¬ 
dowed persons. He was just and kind in his estimation of 
his associates, and was an upright man of the strictest in¬ 
tegrity in all his dealings. He was very simple in his 
wants and not fond of display, so that during the third of a 
century he w T as employed by the Government he saved a 
large portion of his income, thus obtaining capital which, 
by fortunate investments, furnished the means for comfort¬ 
able support after his withdrawal from official life. Al¬ 
though educated for the Unitarian ministry, he was too 
liberal in his religious views for the majority of the adher¬ 
ents of even that broad creed. In later years he ceased be¬ 
lieving in any form of Christianity and professed to be a 
pantheist. 
He remained unmarried so long that it was generally 
supposed by his friends he would always remain single, but 
at the age of 53 he married Miss Lydia Tyler Meech, on 
October 16,1861. They had no children, but she was loving 
and devoted to his interests, and they lived happily together 
until her death, on November 18, 1890. She was a daughter 
