8. Report of the latitude and longitude of Point Conception.

The list of geographical positions appended to this report (Appendix No. 12) contains the trigonometrical points of the coast survey determined up to July, 1850; and also the positions of a number of permanent objects determined by means of the plane table. The list is accompanied by sketches showing the positions of the points referred to. A preface explains generally the divisions of the coast which are referred to; and, in a popular way, the mode of determining the distances, latitudes, longitudes, and azimuths, which the table contains, their connexion through the figure of the earth, and their variation due to irregularities of figure and density. The degree of approximation which may be expected from the results of the computation, according to the stage of progress towards the final conclusions, is pointed out. The arrangement of the different parts of the table is also fully explained. Great care will be required in the revision of the printing of this useful list; and even with it, errors must be expected, which, however, a subsequent impression will in a considerable degree correct.

The act of 3d of March, 1851, required an important class of duties of the Superintendent of the Coast Survey, namely: to provide for the examination of the sites of light-houses, beacons, buoys, &c., for which appropriations were made, and which, in the opinion of the Fifth Auditor, required examination.

"SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That if such person as the Secretary of the Treasury shall designate shall report, in any of the cases herein provided for, that preliminary surveys are necessary to determine the site of a proposed light-house, or light-boat, beacon or buoy, or to ascertain more fully what the public exigency demands, the Secretary of the Treasury shall thereupon direct the Superintendent of the survey of the coast of the United States to perform such duty on the seaboard, and the colonel of the corps of topographical engineers to perform such duty on the northwestern lakes.

"SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the officer so directed shall forthwith enter upon the discharge of the duty; and, after fully ascertaining the facts, shall report: First, whether the proposed facility to navigation is the most suitable for the exigency which exists; and, second, where it should be placed if the interests of commerce demand it; third, if the thing proposed be not the most suitable, whether it is expedient to make any other kind of improvement; fourth, whether the proposed light has any connexion with other lights, and, if so, whether it cannot be so located as to subserve both the general and the local wants of trade and navigation; and, fifth, whether there be any, and if any, what other facts of importance touching the subject.

"SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That all such reports shall, as speedily as may be, be laid before the Secretary of the Treasury; and if such as to authorize the work, without further legislation, he shall forthwith proceed with it, otherwise such reports shall be laid before Congress at the next ensuing session; but, in all cases when the person designated by the Secretary.of the Treasury, under the second section of this act, does not report such preliminary examination as expedient, the provisions of this act shall, without delay, be carried into execution."

The Secretary of the Treasury, in conformity with the first clause of the second section of the act quoted above, called upon the Fifth Auditor to report the cases in which preliminary surveys were necessary to determine the sites of the objects provided for and enumerated in the act. He reported that, with three exceptions, he had "no knowledge of the reasons on which the several appropriations were made," and that "the necessity for the examination was apparent from the many lights on the coast and lakes, and the fact that on some parts of the coast the lights are now so numerous that it is impossible to distinguish one from another, and they are hence becoming a nuisance." (See Appendix No. 14, bis.)

In pursuance of the report of the Fifth Auditor, the Treasury Department gave me instructions on the 29th of March last, (see Appendix No. 13,) to proceed with the examination on the Atlantic coast, the Gulf of Mexico, and Pacific, including thirty-six localities from Maine to Texas, and on the western coast from Humboldt harbor, California, to the mouth of the Columbia river, Oregon.

Instructions, more or less detailed, were issued by me, as early as practicable, to the assistants of the coast survey operating in or near these localities, directing surveys, reconnaissances, or examinations, as the cases required. Upon these reports the decision required by the law was made, and all the facts of the case communicated for the information of the department. These valuable reports of the assistants, usually accompanied by maps or sketches, or referring to the published maps of the coast survey, are embodied in the Appendix to the present report, under the heads of the different sections of the coast. The results are also briefly stated in the same connexion in the body of the report.

A detailed list of the subjects of my reports, in tabular form, is presented in the Appendix, (No. 15,) including the section of the survey in which the work was done; the name of the State, the special locality, the name of the object appropriated for, the officer by whom the examination was made, the date and nature of my reports. The table also contains the results of examination for sites of light-houses, &c., required under the act of Congress of the previous year, viz: those at Fort Point in the bay of San Francisco, at Point Conception, Point Pinos, near Monterey, Point Loma, near San Diego, California, and Cape Hancock or Disappointment, mouth of Columbia river.

The only objects remaining not reported upon are a light-house and fog-signal at Umqua, in Oregon, and two on the coast of North Carolina, the sites for which are under examination, and upon which reports may soon be expected.

The examinations were made in eleven States, viz: Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, North Carolina, Florida, Texas, California, and in Oregon Territory. And the objects reported upon are as follows: light-houses, eighteen; harbor or "bug" lights, three; beacons, six; light-boats, three; buoys, thirty-three; spindles, two; fog-bell, one; fog-whistles, four; floating bell-beacon, one. The special localities of these objects are given at length in the table, (Appendix No. 15,) and the details of the examinations are treated of under the heads of the different sections of the

coast, and in the reports of the hydrographic assistants of the coast survey, which are given in the Appendix. The information embodied in these reports has been obtained through the facilities furnished by the distribution of the parties of the coast survey in all the sections of the coast, at a merely nominal expense-less indeed than one thousand dollars while the information obtained of a reliable sort from the assistants of the work, will effect a saving of many thousands. The zealous and efficient assistant in charge of the office of the Coast Survey has caused the drawings required to illustrate the reports to be promptly made and forwarded to the department. Nor have the steps taken to procure the reports interfered in any case, that I am aware of, seriously, with the duties of the Superintendent and assistants, being rather incidental than foreign to the other duties in which they are engaged.

In July last a letter was addressed to me by the secretary of the Light-house Board, created by act of Congress of March last, requesting inquiries of the chiefs of hydrographic parties of the coast survey in regard to light-houses and accessories on the coast. I addressed a circular to the officers thus referred to, and have transmitted their replies to the board. Several of their replies contain recommendations of new light-houses, beacons, buoys, &c., which are referred to in their annual reports. I have embodied them with other recommendations of assistants in the survey, and have given extracts relating to them from the reports. (Appendix, No. 16.) They embrace objects in the States of Maine, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Texas, and California. (For a tabular list of these objects see Appendix, No. 17.)

The object of my annual report is twofold-one, to give an account of the progress of the survey; and the other, to furnish information which has been derived from it, and which may be of interest to commerce and navigation. The preliminary statements are intended, very briefly and in a general way, to call attention to the most prominent points relating to either of these objects; to give a condensed statement of the progress of each part of the work, an outline of the progress which may be expected during the ensuing fiscal year, and the estimate of its cost. Following the divisions of the coast into sections which has been adopted in the work, I next give a more detailed account of the several operations, stating by whom they have been executed, and their results, derived from the annual reports of the assistants and others employed, and prefacing these details by a notice of portions of the work in each section. In this part of the report I have felt at liberty to incorporate such statistics as are useful in the course of the survey in the office or field. Justice to the arduous labors of those who engage in the difficult operations of the work requires that they should receive a full acknowledginent of the service rendered. The progress of the out-door work is brought up to the first of October in all cases, and, when it is practicable, to the first of November; that of the office work to November.

The division of the coast into sections is as follows:

I. Passamaquoddy bay to Point Judith, including the coast of the States of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.

II. From Point Judith to Cape Henlopen, including the coast of Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and part of Delaware.

III. From Cape Henlopen to Cape Henry, including the coast of Delaware, Maryland, and part of Virginia.

IV. From Cape Henry to Cape Fear, including the coast of the State of North Carolina.

V. From Cape Fear to the St. Mary's river, including the coast of the States of South Carolina and.Georgia.

VI. From the St. Mary's river to St. Joseph's bay, coast of Florida, and including the Florida Reef and Keys.

VII. From St. Joseph's bay to Mobile bay.

VIII. From Mobile bay to Vermillion bay, including the coast of Alabama, Mississippi, and part of Louisiana.

IX. From Vermillion bay to the boundary, including the coast of part of Louisiana and of Texas.

X and XI. The coast of California and Oregon.

The triangulation is continuous, with one single interval of about fifty miles, which less than two seasons more will close, from the mouth of the Kennebec, in Maine, to Ocracoke inlet, in North Carolina, and is well advanced in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas, and nearly completed in Alabama and Mississippi; and the other parts of the work are based upon this and keep pace with it. The survey of the western coast is making vigorous progress, striking first at the determinations most important to navigation. That the survey is not advanced more equally in the different sections, will be understood from the dates at which the appropriation has permitted the introduction of the operations on their full scale in them.

The work was in progress in all its main branches first in the different sections as follows: In No. I, in 1844; in No. III, in 1844; in No. IV, in 1847; in No. V, in 1849; in No. VI, in 1850; in No. VIII, in 1847; in No. IX, in 1850. No. II was nearly completed in 1844. In No. VI there is merely a reconnaissance, the appropriation not allowing the commencement of the other operations there. The operations on the western coast are necessarily, for the present, of a kind appropriate to the peculiar circumstances of the country.

The loss of the steamer Jefferson on the coast of Patagonia, on her voyage to the western coast, has seriously impeded the work which was laid out for the season in sections X and XI. The light-house surveys ordered by Congress on the western coast may be postponed for a brief time in consequence of this loss; but the arrangements made by the Treasury Department, to equip the steamer Corwin and to send her to that coast, will soon place the hydrography there on the footing designed for it. It will be recollected that the Corwin was constructed for the western coast; but that in order to save the working season of this, the Jefferson, considered in every respect suitable for the purpose, (see Appendix, No. 54,) was sent in her stead. The Jefferson should, in my opinion, be replaced, as she was one of the most useful steam vessels of the coast survey.

Before proceeding with an account of the progress of the coast survey during the past year, I would again respectfully call the attention of the department to the fact that no acknowledgment, of the kind

which is most grateful to a military man, has yet been made to Captain A. A. Humphreys, of the corps of topographical engineers, for his devoted and most valuable services to the work. His claims are of the strongest kind for zealous, able, and effective service, and I trust, sir, will be urged by you upon the President.

I proceed to state the general progress of the work during the past year as briefly as the nature of the operations will permit, referring for details to the next division of my report, in which each operation is treated under its appropriate head, and with reference to the persons by whom it has been executed. The progress of the work proposed for the next fiscal year is stated, in a general way, in connexion with the estimates.

SECTION I. Coast of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.-Nine parties have been employed in this section during the whole or part of the season; seven in land work and two in hydrography. Two of the topographical parties were double-that is, employed each two plane tables; and one of the hydrographic parties had three vessels, one of them a steam-vessel. The primary triangulation was extended to Cape Small Point, in Maine; and the astronomical and magnetic observations connected with it made at two stations. The reconnaissance was carried beyond the Penobscot. Special magnetic observations, for harbor charts, were made at three stations in Maine. The secondary triangulation was completed to Casco bay, and the reconnaissance carried over the bay. The topography of the vicinity of Chatham and Wellfleet, Massachusetts; of Cape Ann, from Beverly farms to the northeast point of the cape; and of Newburyport harbor, Massachusetts, was executed. The hydrography of the Nantucket shoals was continued. The hydrography of Muskeget channel was completed; off-shore soundings were made off Block island and Gay Head; the limits of soundings on Great Rip and Davis's bank extended; and the position of Fishing Rip determined. Tidal and current observations were made in Buzzard's bay and the Vineyard sound, and in the passages connecting them. Chatham harbor was examined; the hydrography of Salem, Newburyport, and Portsmouth (New Hampshire) harbors, and of their approaches, was completed. Tidal observations at Charlestown, Salem, and Newburyport, Massachusetts, and at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, have been made. Reports were made on light-houses, &c., at Naraguagus bay and the mouth of the Kennebec, Maine; in Boston harbor; off Chatham; in Holmes' Hole harbor, Massachusetts; and off Brenton's reef, Rhode Island. The difference of longitude of Bangor, Maine, and Cambridge observatory, Massachusetts, has been ascertained by telegraph, (November 25;) and Cambridge has been connected in the same way with a station of the British survey of Nova Scotia. A second chronometer expedition, for dif ference of longitude of Greenwich and Cambridge, has been in progress, and is nearly brought to a close.

The following maps and charts have been in progress, or published: Richmond's Island harbor, Maine; Salem harbor, Massachusetts, and its approaches; Nantucket shoals, new edition; and the general coast chart, Eastern series, No. 1.