system of meteorological research, if extended to the land, would afford for the agricultural interests of the country, and for science too, results quite as important as those which commerce and navigation have already received from it."
It was while analyzing and tabulating these millions of observations that Maury wrote his popular work, The 'Physical Geography of the Sea and its Meteorology.' "One of the most charming and instructive books in the English language," in the opinions of Humboldt and Quetelet. The Edinburgh Review, in noticing Maury's work, says:—"The extent of scientific information which this work conveys, or its easy unaffected style, cannot be at all gathered from the mere enumeration of the subjects of which it treats. The book must be read to be appreciated. It would be speaking of it in a very general way to say that it treats of the sea, its nature, currents, actinometry, and climates; the bed and bottom of the Atlantic; the influence of the Gulf Stream upon climates and commerce. It treats also of the atmosphere, winds, and their geological agency, storm and monsoons, calm belts and sea breezes, rains and rivers, the Arctic regions and the open Polar Sea, the Antarctic regions and their climatology, &c., &c." In the introductory remarks to this volume Maury says:—"I wish to announce a rule of conduct by which I have been guided from the commencement of this work, and by which I mean to be guided to the end; for not only has experience proved it wise, but it is in principle so good, that to it I attribute much of the success which has attended these labours. This rule has been to keep the mind unbiased by theories and speculations; never to have any wish that an investigation should result in favour of this view in preference to that; and never to attempt by premature speculation to anticipate the results of investigations, but always to trust
