While devoting his attention to our great "inland sea," in which he took such lively interest, Maury advocated as a national work the enlargement of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, so that in case of necessity war-vessels might be passed from the Gulf to the Lakes, or vice versa. His papers on this subject created a profound impression, and particularly in the Northwest, where they were received with enthusiastic commendation. They were spread upon the journals of the Legislature of Illinois, with a vote of thanks to the author.

When Congress had under consideration the subject of the cession of the drowned or overflowed lands (belonging to the Government along the Mississippi) to the several States in which they lay, Maury, at the request of one of the Senate committee having charge of the subject, prepared an elaborate report and a bill providing that the States should proceed to reclaim these lands according to a common plan to be matured by competent engineers selected for the purpose by the General Government. It has since become evident that had his plan been carried out, immense advantage would have been gained and enormous loss and damage avoided.

Comprehending as clearly as any man of his time, and ever alive to, the commercial interests of the country, he brought forward and advocated, in a series of papers, the advantages of the warehousing system, contending that the Government was no more called upon to provide warehouses for merchants than it was ships for importers that the true plan was to leave the construction and preparation of warehouses entirely to individual enterprise. His clear and full argument in favor of his policy made a convert of Mr. Calhoun, and won such general favor that a bill providing for the adoption of the system was brought forward in Congress and passed.

It was in 1842 that Lieut. Maury, then in the 36th year of his age, and the 17th of his service as an officer of the United States Navy, was appointed Superintendent of the Depôt for Charts and Instruments at Washington; which, under his careful and skilful management, became the famous National Observatory and Hydrographical Department of the United States. Those who have only casually examined such institutions, after they have been brought into complete working order, can form no adequate idea of the amount of patient labor required in their organisation and progressive development. Probably no man could have been found in the country better fitted than Maury for this difficult duty, and he worked with the zeal and energy that were expected of him. He was now in a position to carry out some of the many projects he had conceived for the benefit of his country and the commerce of the world. We have seen how, eleven years previous, upon assuming his first responsibility as navigator, he had observed the want of trustworthy charts to show the winds and currents to be encountered by mariners, and had resolved to supply this great desideratum. From the old logbooks, which since the establishment of our navy had been stowed away in the Department as rubbish, he extracted with much labor all the valuable information they afforded. Having collected from every reliable source data relative to the voyage between the United States and Rio Janeiro, the first chart of the series was at length completed. Its

value was not at once appreciated. In the nautical, as in other professions, there is prejudice against innovation, and it was some time before any master could be induced to make a trial of its merits. At length, Capt. Jackson, commanding the W. H. D. C. Wright, of Baltimore, determined to trust the new chart and follow the new track. The experiment was a complete success, for he made the voyage out and back in the time often consumed by the old traders in the outward passage alone. There was now no hesitation about the use of the new chart, and the reputation of its author was greatly increased. He then drew up the form of a log containing columns for such facts as would be useful in carrying on his important work. These were furnished to the masters of vessels bound for foreign ports, and they were invited to join him in collecting data. for making other charts, which were furnished as they were issued to all who thus assisted him. An active interest was soon excited, and in all parts of the world he had intelligent and zealous assistants. By such combination of effort a vast amount of information was gathered, reduced to system and utilised. The value of his system being now fully demonstrated, Maury was authorised by the Government to solicit the coöperation of European Powers in the establishment of a general system of meteorological research at sea. Copies of the charts and sailing directions were furnished without charge to the public vessels of all countries, and were also distributed gratuitously to the masters of merchant-vessels, in consideration that each one so furnished should keep a record in the prescribed form, and at the end of each voyage forward it to Washington, or to Admiral Fitzroy's office in London. It was Maury who originated the Maritime Conference held at Brussels in 1853, and at which England, France, Russia, Portugal, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and the United States were represented. England, Holland, and Russia at once agreed to establish offices to coöperate in the development of Maury's system of research, and their example was soon followed, more or less closely, by nearly all the governments of Europe. The establishment of the Meteorological Department of the British Board of Trade was one of the results of that Conference.

With the increased facilities for obtaining information brought about by the working of his system, Maury proceeded to the completion of his "Wind and Current Charts, and Sailing Directions." When considered merely with reference to the amount of money saved by their use to the commerce of the world, their value can scarcely be calculated. In Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, May 1854, the matter is thus briefly set forth:

"Now let us make a calculation of the annual saving to the commerce of the United States effected by these charts and sailing directions. According to Mr. Maury, the average freight from the United States to Rio Janeiro is 17.7 cents per ton per day; to Australia 20 cents; to California 20 cents. The mean of this is a little over 19 cents per ton per day; but to be within the mark, we will take it at 15 cents, and include all the ports of South America, China, and the East Indies. We estimate the tonnage of the United States, engaged

in trade with these places, at 1,000,000 tons per annum.

With these

data, we see that there has been effected a saving for each of those tons of 15 cents per day for a period of fifteen days, which will give an aggregate of $2,250,000 saved per annum. This is on the outward voyage alone, and the tonnage trading with all other parts of the world is also left out of the calculation. Take these into consideration, and also the fact that there is a vast amount of foreign tonnage trading between those places and the United States, and it will be seen that the annual sum saved will swell to an enormous amount." At a reunion of distinguished scientific men, held in honor of Maury in London, it was stated by Sir John Pakington, the chairman, that the practical result of the researches instituted by our great "philosopher of the seas" had been to lessen the expenses of the voyage of a 1000-ton vessel from England to Rio, India, or China, by no less a sum than £250; while in the voyage of a ship of that tonnage to California or Australia and back, the saving effected was £1200 or £1300.

During the preparation of the charts he collected the materials for his great work entitled the "Physical Geography of the Sea." This book was soon translated into several languages, and read with delight in all parts of the world. The discussion it contains of the Gulf Stream is especially interesting. It would be impossible within the limits of this brief sketch to convey any adequate idea of this great work, in which so vast a number of interesting facts are collected and systemised, and the general circulation of which completed the establishment of Maury's fame throughout the civilised world. By no less. an authority that the renowned Humboldt he was declared to be the founder of a new and important science. The principal Powers of Europe recognised the value of his services to mankind by the bestowal of various orders of knighthood and other honors. France presented two gold medals and tendered the insignia of the Legion of Honor; Austria presented her great gold medal of science, and Prussia did the same, adding, at Humboldt's special request, the "Cosmos" medal; Russia tendered the order of St. Anne; Denmark, that of the Dannebrog; Belgium, the order of Leopold, and Portugal, that of the Tower and Sword. Gold medals were struck in his honor by Norway, Sweden, Sardinia, Holland, and Bremen. The Pope established distinguishing flags to be worn at the mast-heads of all vessels from the States of the Church whose masters would cooperate at sea in the new system of research. Those whose journals were approved by its founder received military rank from the government, and became entitled to salutes as they passed its ports. His Holiness also forwarded a complete set of all the medals which had been struck during the Pontificate, as a mark of appreciation of Maury's services in the cause of science. Even before his fame became so wide-spread he was fully appreciated by one of the most sagacious of our Presidents, Mr. Tyler, who at one time wished to place him at the head of the Navy Department. Indeed, in such estimation was he held by several administrations, that for a number of years he quietly controlled the naval policy of the government, and saved the country the expenditure of vast sums by restraining the

disposition to run hastily into what were believed to be great improvements. When steam had become an element of maritime warfare, there was a great disposition in naval circles to build up a fleet of side-wheel steamers. But Maury quietly urged upon the Secretary of the Navy and Congressional committees the policy of awaiting the result of the many experiments then being made by England and France, who, suspicious of each other, were expending enormous sums in building vessels which soon had to be altered or laid aside. It was then that, perceiving the change that rifle-guns, hollow shot and steamships would bring about, Maury proclaimed a new era in naval warfare-that of BIG GUNS AND LITTLE SHIPS. Under the old system the power of a man-of-war was expressed by the number of her guns, some having as many as 110 or 120. He predicted that in future wars few vessels would have more than six. Experience has showed how sound was his judgment.

Among his other writings he pointed out how the introduction of steam as an element of naval warfare had made it necessary to change our system of coast-defences. In 1851 Congress suspended the appropriation and directed that the Secretary of War should obtain the opinion of experts. Lieut. Maury being called upon, declared that casemate-forts such as line our coast were no longer sufficient to guard the entrances of our harbors against steam men-of-war and heavy guns. He proposed that open batteries and earthworks should be substituted. The late war fully established the correctness of his views on this subject. The open works and sandbatteries were the most formidable obstacles which the Federal fleet had to encounter.

Maury was the first to introduce a systematic attempt to fathom the deep sea by a regular series of soundings, a work which he undertook as early as 1848, and in which he was ably assisted by Lieut. Brooke, afterward so distinguished in the Confederate service, and the inventor of an ingenious apparatus for bringing up specimens of the ocean's bottom. These experiments revealed the fact that the poet's fancy was correct, and that the bed of the deep sea was ooze, not hard and rocky as some had supposed, but soft and downy. These investigations, thus originated by Maury, led to the discovery of the telegraphic plateau, the successful laying of the Atlantic Cable, and some of the most important facts touching the physics of the sea ever revealed to man. A Pan-European association has been projected for carrying on these researches.

While laboring so assiduously in behalf of his own government and the cause of science, Maury was called upon by other governments for advice and assistance. When the Emperor of the French was considering the subject of an inter-oceanic canal across Nicaragua, he took the matter out of the hands of his ministers and referred it to the Chief of the Observatory at Washington, with the assurance that he would abide by his decision. After mature consideration, Maury pronounced it injudicious as a French measure, and the project was abandoned. The government of Chile, through its minister, made an effort to secure his services as the head of its scientific department. Many honors were conferred upon him which are more

prized by men of science than those bestowed by princes and potentates. He was elected a member of many learned societies in various countries. Among these were the Academies of Science of Paris, Berlin, Brussels, St. Petersburg and Mexico. The University of Cambridge, England, invested him with its degree of LL.D. So also did some of those of Germany.

We have now followed the subject of this imperfect sketch to the summit of his prosperity. The National Observatory under his careful management was daily increasing in usefulness, and from nothing had sprung into the first rank before the world. A great astronomical work upon which he had been long engaged was progressing satisfactorily, and other projects which he had devised for the advancement of science seemed on the point of realisation, when the great storm of war came upon him in the midst of his careful labors. When his native State withdrew from the Union, she called upon him to resign his place in the navy. He did so and went to Richmont, where he was appointed Chief of the Sea-coast Defences. In this post he assisted in fitting out the Virginia, or Merrimac, for her short. but destructive career, and contributed in various ways to the defences of the Southern ports. This action of his, in connection with certain rivalries and jealousies which had been developed during a year or two preceding the war, furnished occasion at the North for specially strong criticism of his course, some even representing him as no longer a scientist or a philosopher, but a mere charlatan; and so was furnished another illustration of the unreasonableness of prejudice and partisan feeling.

When it became known in Europe that Maury had resigned his place in the Federal service, he was solicited to become the guest of Russia, where every provision was to be made for his comfort, and to enable him to continue the researches regarded as so valuable to the world. This invitation as well as a similar one extended to him by France he declined, Virginia wanting him.

In 1862 he went to England, where he was most kindly received, and became the guest of Admiral Fitzroy. While in England he wrote several able letters to the London press, defending the Confederate cause, the true nature and merits of which were but little understood in Europe. On his return, at the close of the war, he offered his services to the Emperor Maximilian, who appointed him Commissioner of Immigration.

On the fall of Maximilian's Empire, he returned to his native State and accepted the chair of Physics in the Virginia Military Institute. In 1871 he was elected to the Presidency of the University of Alabama, and was much disposed to accept the position, but finally declined.

While in Europe he prepared, by permission, for the son of the Grand Duke Constantine and his cousin Alexis, schoolboys together, an elementary work on physical geography, which by imperial orders was translated for the schools of Russia. It was during the latter year of his stay in Europe that, surrounded by the abundant facilities and aid to be found in London, he devoted himself to the preparation of his geographical text-books for schools, which have been published