Page:Physical Geography of the Sea and its Meteorology.djvu/13

Rh took it to sea, they tried it, and to their surprise and delight they found that, with the knowledge it afforded, the remote corners of the earth were brought closer together, in some instances, by many days' sail. The passage hence to the equator alone was shortened ten days. Before the commencement of this undertaking, the average passage to California was 183 days; but with these charts for their guide, navigators have reduced that average, and brought it down to 135 days.

Between England and Australia, the average time going, without these charts, is ascertained to be 124 days, and coming, about the same; making the round voyage one of about 250 days on the average.

These charts, and the system of research to which they have given rise, bid fair to bring that colony and the mother country nearer by many days, reducing in no small measure the average duration of the round voyage.

At the meeting of the British Association of 1853, it was stated by a distinguished member—and the statement was again repeated at its meeting in 1854—that in Bombay, whence he came, it was estimated that this system of research, if extended to the Indian Ocean, and embodied in a set of charts for that sea, such as I have been describing, would produce an annual saving to British commerce, in those waters alone, of one or two millions of dollars; and in all seas, of ten millions.