of the British Survey, as managed by General Roy, with those of the American Survey, as devised by Professor Hassler, it will be evident that the advantage, both in science and practical skill, was on our side. The results of the British triangulation were found so defective as to make necessary not only a re-measurement of their bases, but of many of the angles connecting them. But on our side, as we shall have occasion to show hereafter, the very first determinations of 1817 have an agreement with those made subsequently in 1834, than which we have nothing better in the detail of similar operations else

where .

The conjecture, that the survey of the coast originated as a necessary auxiliary to Mr. Jefferson's system of defending the sea-board, by a flotilla of small armed vessels, has nothing certain for its basis, and can merely be considered as probable from the circumstance of the two projects coming before the public about the same time. It seems, however, almost indispensable to the judicious management of such a force of gun-boats, that the smaller and less practicable channels should be accurately known; as enabling these small vessels to manœuvre and rendezvous in force, by routes which would be insufficient for vessels of heavier draft.

Apart from considerations of national honor and interest, there are other reasons why a survey of the coast of the United States, if made at all, should be executed with all the precision which can possibly be obtained at any time. The coast for five sixths of its length is low, and may be considered as half formed; the beaches and shoals of which it is composed are constantly shifting by the operation of winds, and tides, and currents; so that the deep channel of one year may be a down the next. This is the case in every part of the coast, from Rhode-Island to the mouths of the Mississippi. That part of hydrodynamics, therefore, which treats of the formation of alluvions, and of the operation of surf and winds upon them, will soon become a useful and necessary study in this country. The time is not far distant when the great metropolis of New York may find the helping hand of science necessary to clear out the access to her beautiful bay. As preliminary to any project of this sort, hydrographic surveys of the most accurate kind, shewing the changes operated upon the shoals and channels from year to year, would be invaluable. Careless examinations would necessarily be injurious, as serving for false

bases. And, in a general point of view, the formation of both beaches and downs is a study of much interest, and to which heretofore but little systematic attention has been given.

To return, however, to the history of the survey. The first official paper relating to it is the circular of Mr. Gallatin, then Secretary of the Treasury, dated March 25, 1807. It may be considered as an exhibit very nearly of the views of the administration, and contains throughout probable evidence that it was for some object of immediate utility, that the survey had been authorized. It may at that time have begun to be known that the French and English governments were in possession of better surveys, and more accurate soundings of our most used harbors than we possessed ourselves, and a mere feeling of shame of our ignorance, and the inferiority which we must necessarily suffer from, in case of hostilities, may have directed the attention of the government more strongly to the subject. Mr. Gallatin says in his Paper,

"It seems to me that the work should consist of three distinct parts, viz.

"1. The ascertainment, by a series of astronomical observations, of the true position of a few remarkable points on the coast." [The reference to light-houses shows that a rapid execution was intended.]

"2. A trigonometrical survey of the coast between these points, of which the position shall have been astronomically ascertained.

"3. A nautical survey of the shoals and soundings of the coast, of which the trigonometrical survey of the coast itself, and the ascertained position of the light-houses and other distinguishable objects shall be the bases."

Mr. Gallatin's circular was addressed, as we learn, from another part of the documents, to the principal scientific gentlemen then in the United States. They appear to have been eleven or twelve in number, though their names are in no place mentioned. We have only in reply the letter of Professor Hassler, and cannot therefore judge, whether other projects may have been recommended by those whose opinions had been solicited by the government, or what amount of practical knowledge on such subjects was then to be found in the country.

The reply of Professor Hassler describes two modes, the first indicating a geodetic survey of the first class; and the sec

ond, the project nearly as it seems to have been understood by the Secretary.

"La marche que vous avez tracée à cet ouvrage dans votre lettre est très juste, et en contient les veritables principes; permettez moi de les étendre seulement, en y appliquant quelques considérations plus détaillées.

"Pour faire cette levée avec toute l'exactitude possible, la marche à suivre seroit la suivante. De mesurer par toute l'étendue des côtes avec un cercle répétiteur à deux lunettes, d'un pied de diamètre (ou à son défaut avec un theodolite Anglois de même diamètre au moins, et susceptible de multiplier les angles) une chaîne de triangles d'environ 60 à 100 mille pieds de côte, fondée sur deux ou plusieurs bases mesurées avec les moyens d'exactitude connus."

After describing the manner in which the topographical details shall be executed, he proceeds.

"Si un tel plan d'opération était regardé comme d'une exécution trop entravée par les localités, il faudrait y substituer le suivant, qui serait.

"De suppléer le mesure triangulaire par les déterminations de longitude et latitude, avec des chronomètres et des sextants ou cercles de reflexion, qui doivent dans ces cas être de première qualité, et les chronomètres toujours: Une série de points et signaux systêmatiquement placés et distribués doivent par là être déterminés, de même que les triangles de la méthode precedente. Cette méthode quoiqu' elle ne soit pas susceptible de toute l'exactitude de la précédente, est cependant exempte du défaut d'accumulation d'erreurs, parceque les déterminations sont indépendantes les unes des autres. (on peut estimer les latitudes à 10" de degré et les longitudes par chronomètres à 2 de temps exact."

These extracts, taken in connexion, convey at least presumptive evidence, that the government were undertaking an operation, of whose extent and importance they had an inadequate conception, and that the person in whose opinion they had confided, had early conceived the idea of making its execution, if possible, not only creditable to the country but to himself. If such were the case, and the government from the commencement patronized the work only as necessary, cheap and useful, while the superintendent has been constantly aiming to give it all the aid of the most improved state of science, there has been abundant reason for the parties, by misunderstanding each

other, to embroil all the details, and produce a chaos from the very best materials.

The law authorizing the survey had been passed in February of 1807. The circular of Mr. Gallatin is dated in March, and the reply of Professor Hassler in the April following. During the autumn of the same year, Professor Hassler received an official notification of the approval of his plan of the survey by the President, and was requested to communicate a description of the necessary instruments and an estimate of their expense. He subsequently, viz., in September of the same year, accepted the commission proposed to him to go to London, for the purpose of procuring the apparatus which he had indicated. The distracted state of our commercial affairs put a stop to any further measures till 1811, when the mission for the purchase of instruments was officially proposed by Mr. Gallatin and accepted by the Professor, and on the 29th of August he embarked for Liverpool. This mission was completed on the 14th of December, 1815, by the delivery of the instruments, books, and apparatus purchased for the government, to Robert Patterson, Esq. the Director of the Mint.

During the interval between Professor Hassler's appointment to go to London, viz. in May, 1811, and his return to the United States, in 1815, an interval of four years, much discontent appears to have been manifested on the part of the government with what seemed to them to have been unnecessary delay. This does not appear distinctly in the documents; but drafts for funds were allowed to be protested in London, and other indications were given that the mission was thought to have lasted long enough, conveying pretty conclusive evidence that the heads of departments had an idea that such instruments as were needed for the survey might be manufactured in a few months at most; shipped with as much care as a cargo of hard ware; crammed into the hold of a five hundred ton ship; tilted on a dray to the custom-house, and the cases hammered opened for its enlightened inspection; while the risk of all these commercial manipulations would be fully covered by the insurance. Such, however, was not the opinion of their professional agent. Duplicates of instruments were ordered of a peculiar and new construction, such as are usually expected to be two years in the hands of the artist. Standards were procured properly authenticated from both France and England. And on an examination of the dates of the several operations performed in VOL. XLII. — NO. 90.

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the four years' mission, an account of which covers two pages of the documents, there is found no space of time not devoted zealously to the object with which the government agent had been entrusted; the only possible source of misunderstanding being, that the government had one view of the subject and the agent another.

Besides the delay necessarily resulting from the very detailed nature of the mission, there occurred others from the hostilities then in progress between the two nations. In one instance (our information on this point is verbal) a passport was refused at the alien office in London, until after a personal application to the foreign Secretary, who is said to have granted it with the remark, "that the British government made no wars on science." The noble lord who made this remark is certainly entitled to some gratitude from us, and some admiration from his countrymen.

But, whatever impatience may have been manifested by the heads of departments, during the procurement of the instruments, it seems all to have disappeared when they were safely delivered in this country. On the 20th of July, 1816, the preliminaries having been discussed, and the rate of compensation fixed, Professor Hassler was appointed to superintend the work, and on the 27th of the same month operations were commenced in New Jersey. There appears, however, to have been no appropriation of funds for the expenses of that year, so that the whole of that season was spent simply in reconnoissances made by the superintendent. In the succeeding summer, that of 1817, the survey commenced under an organization certainly sufficient in numerical strength, but, as we may have occasion to shew hereafter, defective in consistence, and was terminated in the April of 1818, by a peremptory note from Mr. Secretary Crawford, (of which we regret that no entire copy is given with the documents,) and an act of Congress transferring the survey to the Army and Navy; at least so we believe the terms of the law are understood, as it authorizes only the employment of gentlemen from these departments of the public service. The superintendent immediately repaired to Washington, transferred his journals, instruments and authority into the hands from which he had received them, and with a coldness which we can scarce sufficiently estimate, suggested to the department the mode of preserving the work which had already been done.