"The charts exhibit, with wonderful accuracy, the winds and currents, their force and direction, at different seasons, the temperature of the surface waters, the calm belts and trade winds, the rains and the storms. The eight volumes of 'sailing directions,' are brim full of the most valuable nautical information, and are perfect treasures to the intelligent seaman. This effected a revolution in the art of navigation. The practical result was that the most difficult of all sea voyages--that from New York to San Francisco, around Cape Horn--has been shortened by forty days; and it has been estimated, that in shortening the time and lessening the dangers of sea voyages, there has been a saving to the world's commerce of not less than $40,000,000 annually. "In writing about these sea routes he has mapped out, Maury has this to say: 'So to shape the course on voyages as to make the most of winds and currents at sea, is the perfection of the navigator's art. How the winds blow and the currents flow along this route or that, is no longer matter of opinion or speculation. The wind and the weather, daily encountered by hundreds, who have sailed the same voyage before him, have been tabulated for the mariner; nay, his path has been literally blazed for him on the sea; mile posts have been set upon the waves, and finger-boards planted and time-tables furnished for the trackless waste.' "The simple 'Depot of Charts and Instruments,' over which Maury was placed, soon became the 'National Observatory,' with this man of genius as its superintendent. The vast work was international and, in 1853, brought about the great Brussels conference. On his return from this conference, ladened with honors, Maury stood before the world as the founder of the twin sciences of hydrography and meteorology. No less a man than Alexander von Humboldt declared him the founder of a new science." FOUNDER OF WEATHER BUREAU. "The limits of this sketch forbid more than a bare mention of the many other directions in which the genius of this wonderful man blessed the world. The great Atlantic cable, that flashes the news from continent to continent, is one of the radiant sparks that flew from his anvil as he wrought. Cyrus Field declared, at its completion, 'Maury furnished the brains, England gave the money, I did the work.' He established the river gauges of the Mississippi and the daily observations that give our best knowledge of that great river. He established the great circle routes for ocean steamship travel, and the 'steam laws' now used in ocean travel are his. He applied his system of meteorology to land as well as sea, and outlined the work of the 'signal service' and 'weather bureau' of to-day.