Various

“ It is quite time that geography should as far as possible be studied in the same way. No school boy can gain a comprehensive idea of the structure of a continent until he knows minutely the individual parts of which continents are composed. No explorer can perceive the full meaning of the country he traverses, or record his observations so that they can be read intelligently by others until he is fully conversant with the features of geographic types and with the changes in their expression as they grow old. ”

“ Our merchants venture millions of dollars daily on the veracity of its statements, and our mariners risk their lives on the truthfulness of the Surveys. It has added to the prosperity of the nation in peace—to her glory in war; and when history shall record its awards to our people, there will be no page of the galaxy with more honor than that which bears tribute to the genius of American Science, in the work of the Coast Survey. ”

“ It matters not that geographic growth is destructive; it involves a systematic change of form from the early youth to the distant old age of a given structure, and that is enough. It matters not that the change is too slow for us to see its progress in any single structure. We do not believe that an oak grows from an acorn from seeing the full growth accomplished while waiting for the evidence of the fact, but because partly by analogy with plants of quicker development, partly by the sight of oaks of different ages, we are convinced of a change that we seldom wait to see. ”

“ The meaning of geography is as much a sealed book to the person of ordinary intelligence and education as the meaning of a great cathedral would be to a backwoodsman, and yet no cathedral can be more suggestive of past history in its many architectural forms than is the land about us, with its innumerable and marvelously significant geographic forms. ”

“ Although many of the predictions are still falsified by events, the percentage of fulfilments has become so large as to show that continued research will in the future give us fresh forms of prediction and increase the usefulness of this branch of science to mankind.
In all departments of geographical knowledge, Americans are at work. They have pushed themselves into the front rank and they demand the best efforts of their countrymen to encourage and support.
When we embark on the great ocean of discovery, the horizon of the unknown advances with us and surrounds us wherever we go. ”

“ We find evidence of the wasting of great mountains in the wasting of little mounds of sand; and we may by searching find examples of young, mature and old mountains, that follow as well marked a sequence as that formed by small, full grown and decaying oaks. If the relative positions of the members in the sequence is not manifest at first, we have the mental pleasure of searching for their true arrangement. The face of nature thus becomes alive and full of expression, and the conception of its change becomes so real that one almost expects to see the change in successive visits to one place. ”

“ The history of the earth includes among many things an account of its structure and form at successive times, of the processes by which changes in its structure and form have been produced, and of the causes of these processes. Geography is according to ordinary definition allowed of all this only an account of the present form of the earth, while geology takes all the rest, and it is too generally the case that even the present form of the earth is insufficiently examined by geographers. Geographic morphology, or topography, is not yet developed into a science. ”

“ On the other hand, history taken in its more general aspects, including an inquiry into the causes and processes of the rise and fall of ancient nations, answers to geology; and an account of some brief past stage of history is the equivalent of paleography, a subject at present very little studied and seemingly destined always to escape sharp determination. It is manifest that geology and geography thus defined are parts of a single great subject, and must not be considered independently.
History became a science when it outgrew mere narration and searched for the causes of the facts narrated ”

“ We cannot compute the value of what has been learned in dollars and cents; that it has saved to the Nation many times over, all that it has cost, does not admit of a doubt. Its educational influence has been widespread, extending beyond the seas, and coming back to us with cheering words of encouragement and praise. Practical men utilizing the results of the great work in the business affairs of life, use no stinted phrases in the encomiums they bestow upon it ”

“ By means of such predictions, the safety of navigation along the greatest highway of ocean traffic in the world would be vastly increased,—routes traversed yearly at almost railway speed by vessels intrusted with more than a million human lives, and property of an aggregate value of fully a billion dollars. What is everybody's business is too often nobody's business, and if no single nation is going to undertake this work, an international congress should be formed to do so, with full authority to act and power to enforce its decisions. ”

“ The Survey of the Coast has excited the admiration of the whole civilized world for its thoroughness and accuracy, and has not been excelled by the most advanced nations. It has justly been claimed to be a scientific work, as well as a practical one, for science has guided those who have conducted it and led them through the fields of their labors on the only sure basis to produce knowledge. ”

“ The co-ordination of the observations, and their geographical representation upon a map, is undertaken by a staff of trained experts in the Central Bureau in Washington, and through this organization we obtain a weather-map of the world for every day of the year. We can now study at leisure the past movements of the atmosphere, and from these observations we shall surely discover the grand laws that control aerial phenomena. We shall then not only know, as we do at present, whence comes the wind and whither it goes, but be able to predict its movements for the benefit of humanity. ”

“ And in all the din and excitement of the call to arms, with hosts of stalwart, honest men assembled around him, that might give in their learning the wisdom of the world, the controlling mind of the Survey, that had labored diligently and sought knowledge patiently, was a chosen counsellor of the Chief of the Nation. ”

“ The charting of the great ocean currents, has long been an interesting investigation to hydrographers the world over. A sketch of the efforts, projects, and devices that have been resorted to by the Coast Survey in the attempt to unravel the mysteries of the Gulf Stream, would exemplify the continuous demand for improvement and new exertions under which those employed upon the work have always labored, although the full measure of knowledge sought has not yet been obtained. ”

“ The changes in any geographic individual from the time when it was offered to the destructive forces to the end of its life, when it is worn down to a featureless base level surface, are worthy of the most attentive study. The immaturity of the broken country of southern Oregon, as compared with the more advanced forms of the Basin ranges, is a case in hand. The Triassic formation of the Connecticut valley is in some ways of similar structure, being broken by long parallel faults into narrow blocks or slabs, every block being tilted from its original position. ”

“ All along the coast we have the same sequence of phenomena, in greater or less intensity, according to the latitude of the vessel, as we noticed here in Washington that Sunday afternoon, when the warm southeasterly wind, with rain, died out, and after a short pause a cold northwesterly gale swept through the city, piling up the snow in heavy drifts, with trains belated or blockaded, and telegraphic communication cut off almost entirely with the outer world. ”

“ It is impossible with our superficial knowledge of the great ocean currents to estimate the benefits that will be derived from their systematic exploration. It is not probable that the absolute determination of their limits would produce such a revolution in navigation, as was caused by Maury's wind charts, but it is reasonably certain they would prove a valuable assistance to the navigator, and in the great channels and bays of the world increase his facilities for the successful navigation of his ship. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The men of the day fully realized how illy they were prepared to invite commerce to our shores, or incite our own people to more extensive trade. There was nothing to adequately represent those magnificent harbors that have since become famous the world over; nor of that long line of coast with its treacherous shoals, whereby those seeking new ventures might judge of the dangers to be encountered. ”

“ Scientific men, ever watchful of that which is true, have approved it the world over, and cite it as an example of the great profit that may come to a people, free to utilize Science in the conduct of practical work. ”

“ If we reflect then, upon the great use made of the compass in the settlement of the continent, and the proverbial neglect of the country surveyor of those days to record the local variation, or declination, with his work, we may see a little of the utility and practical purposes to which the results are constantly being applied. Property so little thought of a hundred years ago that a few acres more or less, lost or acquired, in its transfer defined by compass surveys, may suddenly assume a value in these days of progress that every square foot is worth dollars. ”

“ The history of a great ocean storm cannot be written with any completeness until a long interval of time has elapsed, when the meteorological observations taken on board hundreds of vessels of every nationality, scattered over the broad expanse of ocean, and bound, many of them, for far distant ports, can be gathered together, compared, and, where observations seem discordant, rigidly analyzed and the best data selected. ”

“ Before organized effort, darkness gave way at every step. Each observer added fresh knowledge to the existing store, without unnecessary duplication of research. The reports of discoveries were discussed and criticized by the societies, and the contributions of all were co-ordinated into one great whole.
America refuses to be left in the rear. Already her explorers are in every land and on every sea. Already she has contributed her quota of martyrs in the frozen north, and has led the way into the torrid regions of Africa. The people of Europe, through Columbus, opened up a new world for us ”

“ It is true such developments were to be expected in making a precise survey of the comparatively uncharted coast; but they, nevertheless, clearly point to the necessity of the work. We may also assume that the men who were controlling the destinies of the republic, realized that a knowledge of the coast was essential if they would succeed in building up a commerce, without which it was believed the prosperity of the people could not be assured. ”

“ The fecundity of fish is so great, and the protection afforded them during the critical period of their life so ample, that it may now be possible to feed the world from the ocean and set the laws of Matthews at defiance. Our geographers of the sea have shown that an acre of water may be made to produce more food for the support of man than ten acres of arable land. They have thrown open to cultivation a territory of the earth constituting three-quarters of the entire surface of the globe. ”

“ When thus studied, the endless variety of the topography will be considered in its proper relations, and it will not seem as hopeless as it does now to gain a rational understanding and appreciation of geographic morphology.
We should first recognize the fact that a geographic individual is an area, large or small, whose surface form depends on a single structure. Boundaries may be vague, different individuals may be blended or even superposed, but in spite of the indefiniteness, the attempt to sub-divide a region into the individuals that compose it will be found very profitable. ”

“ Everywhere—all over the civilized world—the spirit of adventure was aroused. Navigators from England, Holland, France and Spain rapidly extended the boundaries of geographical knowledge, while explorers penetrated into the interior of the new lands discovered. The mighty impetus given by Columbus set the whole world in motion and it has gone on moving ever since with accelerated velocity. ”

“ An essential as well as an advantage in this extension of the study of geography will be the definition of types and terms, both chosen in accordance with a rational and if possible a natural system of classification. Types and terms are both already introduced into geographic study, for its very elements present them to the beginner in a simple and rather vague way: mountains are high and rough; lakes are bodies of standing water, and so on. ”

“ Wise legislation has fostered the sentiment of uniformity until we are indeed blessed, that wherever we may be in all our broad domain, a pound is a pound, a yard is a yard, and a bushel is a bushel. Manufacturers receive their standards from the Bureau, and in special cases have their products tested and certified. And individuals engaged upon work of great refinement, seek the stamp of the Bureau, also, upon the measures on which they must rely. ”

“ With the clear and bold perception, which always distinguishes men of genius when they are entrusted in times of danger with the destinies of a nation, the president recommended a survey of the whole coast with all the aid of the more recent discoveries of science. ”

“ Thus we see the striving for harbor improvements; the weakest making the greatest outcry that they shall not be left in the race. And the improvements must come in the end, or at least be attempted, for it is as much a law of commerce not to be hampered by small freights, as it is the law of nature that water flows down hill. ”

“ From the Great Lakes and northern Vermont to the northern coast of Cuba the wind is blowing a gale from a direction almost invariably northwest, whilst westerly winds and low temperatures have spread over a wide tract of ocean south of the 40th parallel. North of this parallel, the prevailing winds are easterly, the isobars extending in a general easterly and westerly direction. At the storm center off Block Island the pressure is 28.90, but the gradients are not so steep as on the preceding chart, and the severity of the storm, both ashore and at sea, has begun to diminish. ”