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jointly with whom you will also decide the question whether the lighthouses on Cape Disappointment and Point Adams, provided for in the territorial bill of 1848, relating to Oregon, shall be constructed or not, their location, character, and advantages, accessories required, and any other points of interest; reporting to me jointly your results in regard to light-houses, or of reconnoissance, or survey, as early as practicable.

The movement of trade in Oregon, the facilities for entrance to the ports, and other relative local advantages, will determine the question of the points to begin the survey, and I refer this to the joint decision of assistant James S. Williams and yourself.

The work in section X will be executed upon the same principles and by the same method with that in the sections with which you are already familiar on the eastern coast.

The land party under assistant James S. Williams will furnish you latitudes and longitudes in the usual way; and when a reconnoissance merely is required, points determined by directions and distances.

I wish you to give every facility, which may not interfere with the general progress of the work, to the land parties, who may be dependent on you for means of transportation, for the use of boats, and of men at particular times, and other facilities. In this even a closer co-operation is desirable than between the parties on the Atlantic coast, as the parties must be comparatively isolated. In deciding, therefore, in reference to facilities, I would prefer that you should consider the general progress of the work, rather than the advance of any particular department of it.

In the same spirit I entrust to assistant James S. Williams and yourself the decision of any unforeseen questions which may arise, and give you jointly authority where you agree in reference to a measure relating to the progress of the work, locality, arrangements, and the like.

It will be important to establish permanent tidal registers at such points as may furnish facilities in regard to observations and observers, the number to be limited by the expenditure which you find necessary. With these, full series of meteorological observations should be combined, including the pressure (barometer's) of the air, temperature, (thermometer's,) direction and force of the wind, quantity of rain, temperature of a thermometer with a blackened bulb in the sun, and temperature of the surface of the ground. On these subjects I recommend to you the instructions of the Royal Society for meteorological observations for the magnetic observatories. Mr. Williams may furnish parts of these observations, and the subject should be matter for understanding between you.

In regard to preparing preliminary sketches or charts, views of the coast, and the like, I leave the arrangement of the work to Mr. Williams and you jointly, whether to follow the usual mode of returning the land maps and hydrographical charts separately, or to unite in the return.

The sooner we can have some harbor maps, and sketches of general reconnoissance, and information of interest to communicate to Congress and the public, the better. Much of your ultimate success depends upon timely communication. Let me hear from you by every opportunity; and besides the regular formal reports, write very freely, public letters or private ones, at my disposal.

I expect you to take with you the most authentic charts or maps of the western coast, and to make such corrections in them as your opportunities

may permit, and as will not interfere with the instructions for work in Oregon.

You will forward your accounts in the usual form, as frequently as practicable-monthly when practicable, and not passing over a quarter if it can be avoided without great inconvenience. Take your vouchers in triplicate, and send two sets by different opportunities, and keep one by you in case of accident to the others. Send an estimate for funds required at least four mouths in advance.

I will expect to hear from you by every opportunity. You have been furnished with a letter from the Secretary of the Treasury, directing the officers of the revenue, and others connected with the department, to furnish you such facilities as may not interfere with the discharge of their regular duties. I enclose a letter from the Secretary of the Treasury to General Lane, one from the chargé d'affaires of Great Britain to the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company, and a copy of the instructions to Captain Alexander V. Fraser, in command of the revenue brig Lawrence, containing a reference to facilities to the coast survey. Yours, respectfully and truly,

A. D. BACHE, Superintendent United States Coast Survey.

Lieut. Com'g W. P. McARTHUR,
U. S. Navy, Assistant Coast Survey.

EXETER, N. H., August 22, 1849.

SIR: The extraordinary expenses which the officers of the coast survey party on the western coast of the United States have met with, induce me to make the recommendation that there be allowed to the chief and assistants of the parties there, instead of the suns already authorized by the department, two dollars and fifty cents per day for subsistence, to take ef fect from the first of January, 1849, when the Oregon party had nearly completed its preparations to leave the Atlantic coast.

Very respectfully, yours,

W. M. MEREDITH,
Secretary of the Treasury.

A. D. BACHE, Superintendent U. S. Coast Survey.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT,
August 31, 1849.

SIR: Before acting on the recommendation contained in your letter of the 22d inst. on the subject of an increased allowance for subsistence to the chief and assistants of the coast survey parties on the western coast of the United States, in consideration of the extraordinary expenses to which they are subjected in California, I desire to be informed of the number of persons to whom it is proposed to make this allowance, specifying the navy or army, and civilians. I cannot learn that any of the civil or military officers of the United States stationed in California have had any ad

ditional allowances made them on account of the expenses before referred to, and hence it becomes questionable in regard to the propriety of making any distinction in this respect between the different branches of the public service in California.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Prof. A. D. BACHE,

W. M. MEREDITH,

Secretary of the Treasury.

Superintendent Coast Survey, Exeter, N. H.

COAST SURVEY STATION, Near Portland, Maine, Sept. 5, 1849.

SIR: In reply to yours of August 31st, relating to the allowances recommended by me to be made for subsistence to the chiefs of parties and assistants now employed on the western coast, I beg leave to submit the following:

1. In the instructions from the Treasury Department, dated October 23, 1848, the following paragraph refers to the compensation of persons employed :

"2d. The employment of such aids and such hands in the parties as may be necessary, and the allowance of the requisite outfits," (are authorized.) "The persons to receive the pay and allowances fixed by the department for the Gulf of Mexico, or as may be usual on the western coast to secure good hands, and as may be approved by the superintendent. The officers to receive the allowances which apply to the sections on the Gulf of Mexico." It is for this latter clause that I proposed a substitute in my letter of August 22d, using the same phraseology, but proposing a different amount of allowance.

2. Great advantage has resulted to the survey from the allowances made to civil assistants depending upon work to be done in particular localities, instead of an increase of salary, independent of the place of working, and received whether in the field or office. It has rendered service acceptable, for which otherwise it would have been difficult to obtain willing agents. Men of the requisite capacity, science, and other qualities necessary for this work, are not easily procured nor trained, and willing service is the only kind which is profitable to us.

3. The officers whom I had in view in my recommendation to the department as having been subjected to extraordinary expenses were the civil assistan's James S. Williams, esq., and Mr. Joseph S. Ruth, sub-assistant. Mr. Williams receives a salary of $1,600, and Mr. Ruth one of $800. The personal expenses of each at San Francisco, with the severest economy, amounted to $3 per day for board and $100 per month for lodging.

4. In general, officers of the army and navy are furnished with quarters, fuel, and rations in kind, where the cost exceeds the allowance in money made by the government. It may be that Captain Hammond, of the army, assistant to Mr. Williams, and Lieutenant Commanding McArthur, of the navy, commanding the hydrographic party of the coast survey, have been subjected to extraordinary expenses; but no representations from either have yet reached me. Should they have been involved

in any such expenses, I would deem it my duty to submit their case to your consideration.

5. I would most earnestly advise an additional emolument in the way of subsistence, rather than an increase of regular salary to the assistants, at the present time. Without an increase of emolument, they can probably not remain in Oregon; and if it be an increase of salary which does not cease on leaving the western coast, the stimulus to work there, as far as such a consideration would act, is withdrawn. It was not easy to find an assistant exactly suited to send upon this work, and Mr. Williams's compensation is now less than that of any other assistant in charge of work of similar responsibility. We should lose much by his withdrawal.

6. The peculiar attainments required by assistants in the coast survey have always been held to place them on a different footing as to compensation from ordinary civil employés of the government. Mr. Williams, for example, has received four thousand dollars for his services as chief engineer of one of the States; and the offers in California which have been made to induce him to leave our service, and which he has, most honorably to himself, declined, have been large.

7. The commission which an officer of the army and navy holds is an advantage which separates his case from that of civilians employed in the work. He is insured regular promotion as he advances in life; is not exposed to the contingency of an annual appropriation by Congress; is employed during life, whether sick or well-whether the coast survey is finished or in progress; his family receive a pension if he dies from the results of service; he is furnished in kind, if necessary, quarters and fuel; is supplied with medical attendance at the cost of the government; and enjoys other advantages which do not attend the position of a civilian on the coast survey.

These considerations will, I trust, serve to separate the case of assistants in the coast survey from those of other civil and military or naval of ficers, and to warrant the approval of the allowances requested in my former letter, and which I believe are important to the successful prosecution of the work on the western coast at the present time.

Very respectfully, yours,

Hon. W. M. MEREDITH,

Secretary of the Treasury.

A. D. BACHE, Superintendent U. S. Coast Survey.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, September 27, 1849.

SIR: Your report of the 5th instant, in explanation of your recommendation of the 22d ultimo, respecting an additional allowance to the chief and assistants of the coast survey parties employed on the western coast of the United States, has received due consideration.

In view of the existing condition of things, and the extraordinary expenses to which these officers are subjected in the prosecution of their duties, especially in California, it is deemed expedient and proper to make the allowance proposed. The chief and assistants of the coast survey parties operating on the western coast of the United States will therefore

be allowed, in addition to their present compensations, two dollars and fifty cents per day each for subsistence, to commence on their arrival in California, and continue while employed in the discharge of their public duties in California, and cease when engaged elsewhere.

Very respectfully,

Prof. A. D. BACHE,

W. M. MEREDITH,

Secretary of the Treasury.

Superintendent Coast Survey, Washington.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, November 16, 1849.

SIR: Referring you to the instructions of the department of the 17th of August, 1848, in regard to the coast survey operations on the western coast of the United States, and particularly to so much of said instructions as relates to an examination and survey of the entrance to Columbia river, with the view to the location thereat of light-houses, buoys, &c., authorized by the 27th section of the act "to establish the territorial government of Oregon," approved 14th August, 1848, I have to request that the coast survey party assigned to this duty may be urged to an early completion and report of the result of the work, in order that the intention of Congress may be carried into effect by the establishment of light-houses, buoys, &c., at the points indicated, at as early a period as practicable.

So soon as this work shall have been completed, it is the desire of the department, in view of the important commercial interests of the United States on the coast of the Pacific, that reconnoissance should first be made of the headlands, bays, rivers, &c., of the coast of California embraced within the limits of the United States, for the indication of suitable points for the location of light-houses, beacons, buoys, &c.

Your attention, therefore, is called to this subject, in order that the necessary instructions may be given by you to the coast survey parties in California.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
W. M. MEREDITH,

Prof. A. D. BACHE,

Secretary of the Treasury.

Superintendent Coast Survey, Washington.

COAST SURVEY OFFICE, Washington, D. C., December 21, 1849.

SIR: I would respectfully request that, in lieu of the present regulations applying to payment for subsistence of chiefs of parties and assistants in the coast survey work on the western coast, the following regulations be adopted, viz:

Chiefs and assistants of land parties on the western coast of the United States shall receive, while in the field on that coast, an allowance for subsistence of $2 50 per day

I would respectfully request that, in the case of assistant J. S. Wil

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