The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1872-08-09
A Great Oceanic Survey.

A Great Oceanic Survey.
The government is now planning
one of tt g most important and com
prehensive oceanic surveys ever an
dertaken. Under authority of re-
cent Congressional legislation the Blu
reau of Navigation is arranging the
details of an expedition whose mis-
sion viii be to examine and survey
the waters of the Pacific, and to fur
nish materials for accurately eharting
it's vast fuTEaee ard countless is
lands
It has been but little more than
three centuries since Yasco Nunez de
Balboa, with rapt admiration, first
gazed upon this wondrous sea, aud
Magellan nayigated it and named it
from the fair weather that he met
with on his great voyages. But the
time that has interviewed has not
served to acquaint maritiue nations
with the Great Ocean, aud already,
In this com paratively early stage of
/ the worlds commerce, we find SO
urgeut q demand for better know
ledge of it that the principal Euro
| pean powe have instituted extensive
! explorations of It's immense waters,
its winds and currents, and its in
Vulnerable but everchanging archi-
pelagoes. In tie projected expedi-
ton of our own government the first
step will be 10 survey ali that part of
/ the Pacific running from the coasts
/ of Lower Cal fOrnia to the north
western boundaries of the United
States, off Alaska and along the
Aleutian group of islands, and thence
/ southwark to the Sandwich Islands.
One of the most interesting and I'M
portant physical phenomena that will
be brought under scientific review In
this preliminary explora'ion will be
the SaTgasso Sea of the Pacific,
which lies to the westward of the
Lower California coast, and is al
most as distinctly marked as the fa-
nous Sargasso crossed by Columbus
in his first transatlantic voyage.
The expedition will also have une-
qualled opportunity for a full investi-
cation of the great ocean current
known as the KuIo SiWo, and which
pours It's immense volumes of super
heated water on the Pacific COASTS OIL
America, afording them the best and
most delicious Of American climates
tempering alike the heats Of summer
and the colds of winter.
After the more general survey Of
the North Pacific it is proposed thai
the expedition shall return to Homo
lulu, and thence continue its labors
over the entire ocean, taking belts
of latitude of five degrees at time
and covering the area between the
fortieth parallel of north latitud,
and the fortietll of south latitude
The time likely to be consumed IL
the whole work will be necessarily
protracted over at least ten years
But this long period will AFFORD
great advantages for the study O
: numerous practical physical pro
blems In which the maritime worlC
is now so deeply and materially in
terested. The Herald" som,
months ago, suggested the impor
. lance of the Navy Department keep
ing one or two vessels constantly OF
such service in the Pacific, owing t,
: the well known changes that are con
| tinually occurring in its bed. o
this We had last year signal illus
! tration In the sudden disappearance
of Aurora Island lin the New He
brides group which sank withou
leaving the smallest trace of the 500
of its Submergence.
: The arrangement of the plans an,
details for this great survey is wei
: intrusted to Captain r. II. Wynn an
Chief of the photographic Office, b
, which the results achieved will a
be elaborated and chartered. Tn
t credit of urging the Importance {
{ such researches upon the Govern
: ment, and of obtaining through Con
gress the means for prosecutin
them, is mainly due TO the energy {
the New York underwriters al
shippers y Herald.