Page:In Memoriam. Matthew Fontaine Maury.djvu/13

 in which M labored was limited to his own country. Placed in a position which afforded the means necessary to the full employment of his powers, he was not slow to develop and execute the plans which, in the course of his reflection and experience, he had thought useful. The simple Depot for Charts and Instruments was transformed into an Observatory. Surrounded by such men as F, W, H, C, K, and other faithful workers, whom he inspired with his own enthusiasm, he made the Naval Observatory National in its importance and relations to the Astronomical world.

This accomplished, he added to those labors of the Astronomer, fruitful of results for future years, the task of unravelling the Winds and Currents of the Ocean, and of measuring its depths. In pursuance of these objects he collected from the log-books of ships of war, long stored in the Government offices, and from all other accessible sources, the material suited to his purpose. By numerous assistants (junior officers of the Navy) it was tabulated and by him discussed, yielding for the guidance of the mariner on a single route, the combined experience, as it were, of a thousand captains of infallible memories. And yet, when M offered