Page:Physical Geography of the Sea and its Meteorology.djvu/15

 Rh to the same subject, was a great point gained: it was a giant stride in the advancement of knowledge, and a great step towards its spread upon the waters.

Important results soon followed, and valuable discoveries were made. These attracted the attention of the commercial world, and did not escape the notice of philosophers generally.

The field was immense, the harvest was plenteous, and there was both need and room for more labourers. Whatever the reapers should gather, or the merest gleaner collect, was to insure to the benefit of commerce and navigation—the increase of human knowledge—the good of all.

Therefore, all who use the sea were equally interested in the undertaking. The government of the United States, so considering the matter, proposed a uniform system of observations at sea, and invited all the maritime states of Christendom to a conference upon the subject.

This conference, consisting of representatives from France, England, and Russia, from Sweden and Norway, Holland, Denmark, Belgium, Portugal, and the United States, met in Brussels, August 23, 1853, and recommended a plan of observations which should be followed on board the vessels of all friendly nations, and especially of those there present in the persons of their representatives.

Prussia, Spain, Sardinia, Oldenberg and Hanover, the Holy See, the free city of Hamburg, the republics of Bremen and Chili, and the empires of Austria and Brazil, have since offered their co-operation also in the same plan.

Thus the sea has been brought regularly within the domains of philosophical research, and crowded with observers.

In peace and in war these observations are to be carried on, and, in case any of the vessels on board of which they are conducted may be captured, the abstract log—as the journal which contains these observations is called—is to be held sacred.

The illustrious Humboldt, several years before his death, expressed the opinion that the results already obtained from this system of research had given rise to a new department of science, which he called the

Rarely before has there been such a sublime spectacle presented to the scientific world: all nations agreeing to unite and cooperate in carrying out according to the same plan, one system of philosophical research with regard to the sea. Though they