a copy of the work sent to every recording shipmaster, has been organized upon the sea a corps of systematic observers more extensive than has ever been engaged upon the investigation of any scientific subject. Every shipmaster engaging in the observations, receives from the Government a copy of Mr. Maury's work, and thus all are interested in it. The observations of each tend to the benefit of all; and each, wherever may have been the locality of his observations, has the benefit of the experience of thousands who have been there, and elsewhere, before him.
"Thus, when the charts shall have been completed, the mariner, whatever may be his position upon the ocean, will be able to inform himself as to what winds and weather the united experience of thousands may teach him to expect; from what quarters he may hope for favourable or apprehend adverse wind and weather.
"The immediate result of Mr. Maury's labours is, that ocean voyages under sail are shortened from ten to twenty per cent; and if this result be followed out to its legitimate consequences, who can undertake to prescribe a limit to the benefits they confer? Who will undertake to estimate the mere pecuniary saving, to the navigating interests, in the decreased expenditure for outfits, provisioning and manning ships, the decrease in ocean risks, not only to ships and cargoes, but to lives of seamen and passengers, and the enhanced value of merchandise by a more speedy delivery?
"Before the publication of these charts, a voyage from our eastern ports to San Francisco, under canvas, occupied, on an average, one hundred and eighty days; but now the average voyage of vessels using these charts is one hundred and thirty six days; and in several instances it has been performed in half the time formerly occupied. The vessels course through the sea has been precisely that which is traced for her upon the chart. The Melbourne Argus
