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272 with his daughters, to the White Sulphur Springs, intending to devote the autumn to a study of the climate and productions of Virginia, with a view to the preparation of a report on its geographical position and commercial advantages. At that time the people of Holland were in great hopes that Flushing, with improved facilities for ships, would become an important commercial port. Maury received a proposal for establishing a life of steamers from Flushing to Norfolk in Virginia, and he welcomed the idea as likely to confer great benefits on his beloved native land. This gave a fresh spur to his ideas connected with an industrial and meteorological survey of Virginia.

On the 10th of September, 1868, Maury was duly installed in his Professorial Chair at Lexington; but he was not able to begin his residence until the following year. He spent the winter at Richmond, occupying himself with a preliminary report on the material wealth and resources of Virginia, and entertaining bright hopes from the new direct line of steamers which Commodore Jansen was striving to establish between Flushing and a Virginian port By the spring of 1869, Maury and his family were established in their house at Lexington.