Wind and Current Charts, that are revolutionizing navigation. The results already obtained have astonished the world, and the advantages annually derived by commerce are estimated by millions.
"The importance of these achievements immediate and prospective, as well as the credit due to Lieutenant Maury as the originator of this system of observations, has been noticed in the most decided and flattering terms by the Secretary of the Navy in his several Annual Reports of 1850, 1851, 1852, 1853, 1854, 1855, and 1856; by the committee on Naval affairs in an able report made to the Senate, January 29th, 1855; and by the President of the United States, in his annual message in 1851; as well as by the most important nations of Europe, a number of whom have solicited permission of Congress to confer on him suitable expressions of their appreciation of his brilliant achievements as a man of science, and of his exalted position among the benefactors of his race.
"This is a brief and imperfect notice of the system of meteorological observation and research at sea, which your memorialists pray may be extended to the land. In the opinion of your Committee, it is worthy of consideration whether this may not be necessary in a commercial point of view, independent of the influence on the interests of agriculture, as an integral part; of the system of observations already approved by Congress and the executive department of the Government, and it is in this light that your Committee propose first to consider the propriety of granting the prayer of your memoralists. As long ago as 1851, Lieutenant Maury urged the importance of including the land within this system of research. The Conference of Brussels above named, composed of some of the most distinguished men of the age, recommended such an extension. Their deliberations, however, were confined by their instructions to the
