surveyors of the water, and had added not a little to the improvement of Hydrographic methods. The History of the Survey shows a steady advance in methods of work from its foundation to the present day. But so equally has the march of improvement been due to the zeal and untiring efforts of the civilians and officers of the Army and Navy alike, that any distinction would be invidious.
The plan of reorganization of 1843 provided for a detailed survey of precision. It was to be based on an exact triangulation that would insure positive results, that the location of a danger or the development of a new channel, should be beyond doubt; and that the survey, when completed, should fit together as one continuous line, in which the distance and direction of any object on the map from any other object should be true, whether the objects were in hailing distance of one another, or at the extremes of our boundaries. So well was the scheme conceived, so perfect has it proved in operation, that it is substantially the guide for the closing labors of the great work, notwithstanding the many improvements that experience has wrought in the details.
Those engaged upon the Survey have been quick to profit by experience, and the master mind of Professor Bache, the second Superintendent, was not slow to adopt that which promised increased economy, rapidity or improvement. He drew from all sources, Science contributed her quota and the great inventive genius of the American people played an equal share in producing the final results.
The researches that were necessary to obtain the information required by law "for completing an accurate chart of every part of the coasts," have produced results of great economic and scientific value to the whole people, aside from their bearing on the interests of commerce and navigation; and which will contribute to the welfare of mankind long years after those who labored for them have passed away. A brief reference to a few of the many instances that might be cited to illustrate this perpetual influence to benefit our fellow men, may not be without interest to some of you present.
The application of the method of determining latitude by the measurement of small zenith distances, introduced by Captain Andrew Talcott of the Engineer Corps, U. S. A., while serving as an Assistant on the Survey, developed such radical errors in
