OBITUARY NOTICES. 
463 
were doe, for soon after in a letter he called Bache’s atten¬ 
tion to errors in the formulas in use in the Survey for the 
computation of geographical positions, giving his own de¬ 
velopment of correct ones. In reply Superintendent Bache 
wrote to the youth of nineteen, saying, “You have over¬ 
ridden two of our most experienced computers and have 
shown that they were seriously in error.” To an offer from 
Bache of a position on the Survey in a subordinate capacity 
and at small pay he made the characteristic reply that he 
would rather do “ high work at low pay than low work at 
high pay” and gladly accepted the position. His ability 
procured him immediate recognition, and, notwithstanding 
his youth, he was placed at the head of a surveying party 
in 1846 and made trigonometric, astronomical, and mag¬ 
netic observations. His efficiency was as marked in the 
office as in the field, and the various duties assigned him 
were always discharged with marked ability. 
For a brief period in 1861 he severed his connection with 
the Survey, but was recalled by Bache at the outbreak of the 
war, when the existence of the Survey was threatened by 
hostile legislation, to return to Washington and help save 
and maintain it. To his share of this task Hilgard at once 
addressed himself with his accustomed vigor and ability 
and succeeded by his cogent and farseeing arguments in 
convincing leaders of the dominant party of the necessity 
of maintaining such an organization in time of war. Called 
to assume charge of the Coast Survey office in 1862, the 
opportunity was afforded him to make good his prediction 
of its usefulness to the Government in those trying times 
by meeting the urgent demands made upon it for military 
maps, to the production of which the energies of the office 
were for a time mainly devoted. Then, when a lingering 
illness, not unlike that which finally clouded his own mind, 
incapacitated his chief, the administration of the whole 
Survey fell upon the shoulders of Hilgard in 1864. Then 
for two years he was superintendent, in fact though not in 
name, and filled the office, to quote the words of Benjamin 
Pierce, “ with distinguished ability manifest to all.” 
