northern rocks of the Passage du Four, (Finisterre,) where operations had stopped in 1818, and thus were completed the materials for the fifth and sixth parts of the Pilote Français, which appeared in 1842 and 1844. The six atlases contain twenty-one general charts, sixty-five special charts, thirty-one plans of double elephant size, fifteen of half elephant, and fourteen of quarter elephant size, two hundred and seventy-nine tables of surveys taken of the principal dangers of the west and north coasts of France, and one hundred and eighty-four tables of high and low water observed during the progress of the twenty seasons spent upon the same coasts. The account (l'Exposé, &c.) of these hydrographical labors, executed under his orders, was so drawn up by M. Beautemps-Beaupré as to serve as the complement to the second chapter of the appendix attached to the first volume of the voyage of d'Entrecasteaux. In justifying this form of composition, he pleads that, when that appendix was published, his practical knowledge of the best means for reconnoitring maritime obstructions could not be so positive as that acquired during his first ten campaigns (1817 to 1827) on the coasts of France. It is certain, nevertheless, that in everything essential his method was definitely fixed at the time of the publication of d'Entrecasteaux's voyage in 1808; and in the preface to that work it is thus spoken of by M. de Rossel, an authority of undoubted competency: "Navigators will in general find in this appendix hydrographic instructions of a far more complete nature than any heretofore published. M. BeautempsBeaupré has here given also several expeditious methods for sounding a coast and marking the depths on the chart. These methods, of which he availed. himself for his operations conducted on the coast of France, (before 1808,) by order of the minister of marine, are so useful that it would be unjust to withhold them from navigators, as well as those of which he made use during the campaign."

From these judicious observations of one of the masters of hydrographic science, it will readily be inferred that the operations which M. BeautempsBeaupré conducted on the coasts of France differ in several essential particulars from those with which he was habitually occupied in the voyage of d'Entrecasteaux. In the latter, which pertain generally to what is called surveying under sail, the end principally in view was to fix the position of the remarkable objects seen on the land, capes, mountains, &c., by means of observations directed towards those objects from certain points in the course of the ship, determined with especial care. The operations on the coasts of France, within an extent generally less wide and with much less rapidity, had in view to fix various points of the sea, rocks, places of sounding, &c., with reference to certain objects determined on land, mountains, steeples, semaphores, and other signals. This was almost an inverse operation to the preceding; yet this also required numerous admeasurements of angles, which were obtained with the same reflecting circle, and the geometric constructions were derived essentially from the same trigonometric principles, although the proposition of the " problem of three points" was here more frequently employed.

As the bearings taken from the sea were directed upon all the remarkable objects of the land, it was necessary that the position of these should be determined by geodetic measurements made ashore with all the precision attainable by science. For this reason a triangulation was executed on land embracing all the points of the coast. This was effected for the western coasts of France, from Brest to Saint Jean de Luz, by M. Daussy, and for the northern and southern coasts by M. Bégat, both members of the corps of hydrographical engineers of the marine. These triangulations have been connected with the grand triangulation which serves as a base for the new chart of France published by the corps of the etat-major, and have been found so exact that they have been finally incorporated in that fundamental system. MM. Daussy and Bégat have deduced from their trigonometric labors a complete table of the

positions of all the remarkable objects of the coasts of France which can be seen from the sea; and it was by bearings directed upon these points, rigorously determined, that M. Beautemps-Beaupré and his assistants fixed the posi tions of the points of the sea which were to be marked on the charts and plans. The bearings were invariably taken with the reflecting circle, in the management of which valuable and delicate instrument M. Beautemps-Beaupré had acquired great dexterity. Nor was he less expert in constructing graphically on the first rough draught of his chart the points observed by his method, founded. on the geometrical principle of the "problem of three points." He was master in a surprising degree of the varied constructions deducible from this principle, and applied them, as the case might require, with the utmost readiness and sagacity.

It is usually by means of the circumferences of circles described with the observed distances that the points of station are obtained; but when this construction presents some difficulty by reason of the length of the radius of the circle, the nearness of centres, &c., it is practicable to substitute one of those somewhat numerous and generally quite simple constructions which elementary geometry deduces from the same fundamental theorem. Thus, in many circumstances, calculation may be used to find the radii and centres of the circles to be described. M. Beautemps-Beaupré recommends for these constructions, combined with calculation, the employment of the tables of natural tangents and sines.

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The scale adopted by the hydrographic engineers for the first reduction of their labors was six lines for 100 toises, or 4400, equal to six times that of the chart of Cassini. The charts, and even plans, however, have been generally published on a scale much smaller, but M. Beautemps-Beaupré soon recognized the propriety of not only collecting the materials requisite for the execution of the new charts of the coasts of France, but of exerting himself, moreover, to bring together in the archives of the depot of marine all the documents which might be useful in the sequel for forming a judgment of any projects relating to navigation. He suffered himself to be deterred neither by the difficulties nor magnitude of the work, and the depot found itself eventually in possession of a collection of five hundred and twenty-seven quarto volumes, containing the documents requisite to execute at need, on the largest scale, the plan of all parts of the western and northern coasts of France to which the attention of government might be called.

One of the most essential and useful parts of marine charts is the indication of the depths of the sea at different points obtained by the sounding line and denoted by figures on the chart. M. Beautemps-Beaupré was equally skilled in making and in marking the positions of soundings, and it is with the authority of a practised master that he recapitulates in the Exposé des Travaux, &c., the rules of the difficult art of submarine topography. It was seldom that an obstruction or peril escaped him, though he seems to take pleasure in citing, for the instruction of his successors, instances in which his researches were baffled for years in succession. One day notice was given him that a vessel had touched upon a rock at a point where none was known to exist. He sought for it a long time without success, but at last his line fell upon it. The rock was simply a peak whose diameter scarcely exceeded that of the lead of the sounding line.

It is necessary to take account in soundings of the constant variations of the level of the sea by reason of the tides. "The first thing to be done," says our hydrographer, "at the commencement of a campaign, on a coast where the water through this cause continually changes its level, is to place a certain number of scales, divided into feet and inches, on which those changes shall be observed, since it is by means of observations of this kind that we are enabled, in giving the chart its definite form, to reduce to the lowest water level the soundings made at all hours of the day and tide. To reduce the soundings is to subtract from the depths found on different days and at all hours of the tide, for every

point of the coast sounded, the suitable number of feet, in order to transfer to the plan only the depths of water found at each point at the precise instant of lowest depression. The tables of high and low tide, at many principal points on the coasts of France, are extracts frem the large body of observations which served for the reduction of the soundings." (Exposé des Travaux, &c., p. 10.) As M. Beautemps-Beaupré has more than once remarked, the soundings in many parts of the sea are far from being necessarily unchangeable. It is readily conceived that they must vary as well from the effect of deposits produced at some points as of erosions which take place at others. He had said, as early as 1804, in his nautical description of the coast of the North sea: We forewarn navigators that our work must not be regarded as everywhere authoritative, except for a limited time, on account of the changes which are in progress in the shoals upon these shores." To the same effect he observes with reference to the western and southern coasts of France: "All banks of sand and ooze undergo changes of position and of depth of which navigators should ever be distrustful, since the best charts can only give, as regards dangers of this kind, insufficient information when some time has intervened since their construction. And this applies especially to such banks when they obstruct the mouths of rivers. Hence the necessity of sounding annually the principal channels, and, indeed, of frequently renewing the charts of the entrances of rivers." It may be added that the comparison of the successive charts of the same region will some day furnish valuable data respecting the accumulation of sub-marine alluviums.

It was to the class of researches just spoken of that our colleague dedicated his last hydrographic labor. He had not taken final leave of the sea in closing, in 1839, his survey of the northern coast of France. In 1841, at the age of seventy-five, he cheerfully complied with the invitation of Admiral Baudin to join him in an investigation of the changes produced in the system of bars at the mouth of the Seine within the seven preceding years. It was then that for the first time he had at his disposal a vessel moved by steam, and the superior facilities thus furnished for hydrographic enterprises drew from him the remark, "That he would gladly recommence his career if it were only for the pleasure of prosecuting hydrography with such advantages."

Though he cheerfully acknowledged that the marine had done in his behalf all that was practicable, yet he had never, during his operations on the coasts of France, possessed other resources for transportation than those supplied by the sail and oar. He had generally at his command a company of eight or ten hydrographical engineers and officers of marine, and from this school of practical hydrography have proceeded many of each class who have since been intrusted with the most important labors in remote as well as neighboring seas. Among them have appeared at different times our present colleagues, M. Daussy, Admiral du Petit Thouars, and M. Dortet de Tessan; MM. Givry and Gressier, to whom was intrusted, under our distinguished and regretted colleague, Admiral Roussin, the hydrography of the coasts of Brazil; MM. Monnier and Le Bourguignon Duperré, who have furnished us a magnificent chart of our colony of Martinique, and have commenced the hydrographic survey of our Mediterranean coasts, and those of Italy; MM. Begat, Keller, Chazallon, Lisusson, Delamarche, de la Roche-Poncié, now actively prosecuting the grand hydrographic enterprises of the depot of marine; MM. Darondeau and Vincendon Dumoulin, who have so honorably associated their names with our great voyages of circumnavigation and other important labors; MM. Le Saulnier de Vauhello, Lapierre, Jehenne, De Villeneuve, who, as officers of our marine, have in different quarters of the world rendered signal services to hydrography. Familiar with all the hazards of the sea, M. Beautemps-Beaupré exercised a consummate prudence in the employment of his assistants, and was justified in saying to the Academy, when he presented it with the sixth and last volume of

the Pilote de France: "It completes the satisfaction I feel at having brought to a successful close so considerable a work as that which I now submit to the Academy, that never in the course of twenty campaigns, amidst the innumerable dangers which beset our coasts, have I had to deplore the loss of one of my comrades by any accident of the sea." Nor was he less emphatic in acknowl edging the zeal and science of those who had taken part in his labors, and we feel that it was with equal pride and pleasure that he took another occasion to say: "Practical knowledge may advance, and methods be hereafter improved, but we believe ourselves fully justified in affirming, that under no circumstances can greater zeal be exerted than has been displayed by all our fellow-laborers." Hence, when Louis Philippe, in 1844, named him grand officer of the legion of honor, the entire corps of hydrographical engineers felt themselves recompensed in the person of their venerable chicf.

Kindness of disposition did not preclude, in the case of our colleague, great firmness of character, as was abundantly manifested amidst the vexations inseparable from labors like his; especially was his constancy of purpose proved by a circumstance which would have discouraged most others. Although he embarked young, and at the outset was tossed for two successive years on the most stormy seas, he ceased not at any time to be subject to sea-sickness, and it was amidst sufferings from this malady, which so completely subdues the stoutest spirits, that for fifty years it devolved on him to measure angles with the nicest precision, and note the details of soundings, while exposed on slight vessels to the waves which often swept over himself and his drawings; yet he paid no attention to these things, and disliked to have his infirmity observed by others. To his assistants, however, his sufferings could not be unknown, and must have contributed to the sympathetic affection with which he was regarded by those, whether officers or mariners, with whom his labors brought him into

contact.

It was indeed natural that, with such a character as his, M. BeautempsBeaupré should be loved by all who approached him, and it may be readily imagined that the 25th September, 1848, which witnessed his official retirement, was, for the depot of marine and the whole corps of hydrographic engineers, a day of undissembled regret. Equally may we conclude that it was a day of festivity when, February 2, 1853, M. Ducos, minister of marine, came, in the name of the Emperor and in the presence of the corps of engineers, to inaugurate the bust of our colleague in the grand gallery of the depot, whose invaluable documents have in great part been collected by himself or under his orders, or at least by the methods with which he has endowed hydrography. On this interesting occasion, Admiral Mathieu, the worthy and learned director of the depot, pronounced a discourse, from which I must content myself with transcribing the following passage: "In having constantly before our eyes the vencrable features of him who was once our chief, and who has created that admirable hydrographic science which is the torch of navigation, we shall recall without ceasing his vast and conscientious labors, his useful counsels, his devotion to duty, his rigid probity, and at every moment of the day, so to speak, we shall pay him the tribute of respect and gratitude due to him by so many titles." To this address M. Ducos cordially responded: "This bust," he said, in closing his remarks, "is entitled to our respect, for it is that of M. Beautemps-Beaupré, so much endeared to the navigators of all nations and of every sea. In dedicating this effigy of the man of science, whom you justly consider the founder of the depot of marine, in the place which has been the witness of the labors of his long career, it would seem to be no strained metaphor which should liken this tribute of your regard and veneration to one of those beacons erected by his counsels and exertions by which you would ingeniously recall to his successors the modest point of departure, and the glorious point of success which they too may realize." The bust is perfect in its resemblance, faithfully repro

ducing the noble features, the kindliness, united with penetration, which characterized the original. Under a physiognomy impressed with so much goodness, we are easily persuaded that we see one of those ancient savants of the primitive type whose renown is the property of ages. To the skilful statuary (M. Desprez) who executed it, the more honor should accrue, inasmuch as M. Beautemps-Beaupré had reached the age of eighty-six without having ever permitted. any one to take his portrait. After the ceremony, the minister, the admiral, and the whole body of assistants proceeded to the modest residence of M. Beautemps-Beaupré, in the street des Saints-Peres, there to render to the illustrious old man in person, and amidst the applause of all present, an homage which must have sensibly touched his heart.

Nor were the scientific bodies, to which he belonged by more than one title, less conscientious in their acknowledgments. In 1824 he had been named member of the bureau of longitudes, and assiduously attended the meetings whenever he was in Paris. His advice in all that regarded navigation was here listened to with invariable deference. He had been also named one of the commission of light-houses from the commencement in 1826, and was especially intrusted with the suitable location of those invaluable aids to navigation. The active and influential part which he took in the deliberations of the board was warmly acknowledged at his funeral by M. Leonce Reynaud, the skilful constructor of the light-house of Brehat, the site of which was fixed by M. Beautemps-Beaupré himself, after the difficult and dangerous exploration of the Roches-Douvres at the entrance of the British channel. His character, his long experience of the sea, his solicitude for the public good, conspired, with the intrinsic wisdom of his counsels, to secure their constant adoption. Even on his death-bed his thoughts were still occupied with the interests and dangers of maritime enterprise; and if he manifested a sensibility, it was to the assurance that the member of the commission of light-houses had completed the work of the hydrographer, and that thenceforward all important questions bearing on the lighting of our sea-coast were resolved.

Whatever related to the sea interested him to the last. In 1853 a commission was appointed to investigate, under the direction of M. Dumas, certain questions touching the existence of the tangue, a product of marine origin which the sea throws up at the entrances of certain rivers of Normandy and Brittany.. Agriculture dreaded the disappearance of this fertilizer. The commission, desirous of consulting M. Beautemps-Beaupré on this production of shores which he had so thoroughly explored, repaired in a body to his residence. The aged navigator recovered all his animation in speaking of places which he had so often visited: "We know not," he said, "how the tangue is reproduced at those points; it is the fowl which lays golden eggs; it must not be interfered.

with."

In the presence of the great spectacles of nature, M. Beautemps-Beaupré had contracted a taste for natural history. If he did not cultivate it himself, he zealously aided those who did. In the expedition of d'Entrecasteaux he had formed intimate relations with its botanist, M. de la Billardicre, and it was he who brought to France the beautiful nautilus vitré now in the Museum of Natural History which was bequeathed to the government by M. de Kermadec, captain of the Esperance, on his death in New Caledonia. Many of our colleagues recall with sensibility the cordial and obliging reception extended to them on our coasts by M. Beautemps-Beaupré while prosecuting his own arduous hydrographic labors.

Reared among the savants of the close of the eighteenth century, he had preserved that almost religious respect for science which was one of their distinctive characteristics. Hence the dignity, united with friendliness, which pervaded all his relations. "He was," said the Marchioness de Laplace, whose remembrance is itself a culogy, "a man of an antique character." He possessed