USA > California > History of California, Volume V > Part 35
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In 1848 the march of improvement having gained the shores of Oregon, application was made to the treasury department for the extension of the operations of the coast survey organization, which had for several years been at work on the Atlantic coast, to include the coast of the Pacific. By virtue of an act of congress, passed March 3, 1847, the secretary of the navy had advertised for bids to carry the United States mails from New York to Chagres by one line of steamers and from Panama to Astoria by another, and to avail themselves of this engagement, Gardiner Howland, Henry Chauncy, and William H. Aspinwall formed the Pacific Mail Company and built three steamers to carry the mails from Panama to Astoria. The treasury
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department issued directions to the superintendent of the coast survey to begin the field and hydrographic work in Oregon, and in accordance with this order the superintendent sent a surveying party under Assistant James S. Wilson for the field work, and for the hydrogra- phy, Lieutenant Com'g William P. McArthur, U. S. N. For the general use of the party the top-sail schooner Ewing, one hundred and ninety-two tons, carrying four or six guns, was dispatched from New York on the Ioth of January, 1849, under command of Lieutenant Washington A. Bartlett, who had seen service in California as first alcalde of San Francisco, and the field party followed on the Ist of February in the steamer Falcon by way of the Isthmus of Panama. The surveying party reached San Francisco in April, and while awaiting the arrival of the Ewing employed their time in a general reconnaissance of the north shores of the bay of San Francisco. After a long and dangerous voyage the Ewing reached San Francisco on the first of August only to lose the greater part of her crew by desertion to the gold fields, leaving Mr. Williams and his party unable to reach the mouth of the Columbia. Lieutenant Com'g McArthur arrived at the end of August and it was determined to defer special operations until the next year, while the field party employed their time in a general reconnaissance of the coast from Monterey northward.
In May, 1850, the superintendent sent out a party of four of the younger officers of his staff for field duty in California under the leadership of George Davidson. These young men volunteered their services for duty on the Pacific coast and pledged themselves to perform for
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one year any duty however hard or manual. This pledge was kept, not for one year only, but all through the subsequent years of the gold excitement. Unaffected by the great disparity between their stipend and the pay of day laborers about them, unswayed by oppor- tunities for fortune that offered on all sides during the most brilliant period of California's development, Professor Davidson and his associates steadily advanced the work of the survey, striking instances of those who place duty above all thought of material advantage. There were many opportunities for amassing wealth and achieving independence, but through it all they remained steadfast and faithful.
Before the conquest of California by the Americans, and the discovery and development of its mineral wealth, comparatively little was known of the hydrog- raphy and geography of its coast, except by the few traders who frequented its shores and the daring otter hunters who were familiar with every cove, rock, and headland. We cannot withhold our admiration for the courage of the early Spanish navigators who in small, ill-conditioned ships, with crews wasted with scurvy, and with wretched and untrustworthy instru- ments explored these coasts as far north as Alaska. In speaking of them George Davidson says in his "Coast Pilot": "There were giants in the earth in those days."
After the discovery of gold in California the hitherto lonely seas of the Pacific fairly teemed with life. In every quarter of the globe individuals and companies were fitting out for the voyage to California. Every maritime town hummed with the noise of preparation
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and everything in the nature of a ship was overhauled and made ready for sea. Old condemned hulks were withdrawn from retirement, fitted with berths, and provisioned for the voyage. That greater disasters did not overtake these Argonauts seems marvellous. During the year 1849 over seven hundred vessels entered the port of San Francisco; there was not a light on the coast of California; the geographical posi- tions of the principal capes, headlands, etc., were unknown, and when stated on the few charts that could be had, were generally wrong. George Davidson says that he heard of more than one vessel reaching California with only a school atlas for a chart. This then was the field for the work undertaken by George Davidson, and never was work more needed or more skillfully and faithfully performed. From the southern boundary of the United States in 30° 30' to the north- ern boundary in 49°, there was an ocean shore line of over 3,120 miles, including the islands of the Santa Barbara channel, the strait of San Juan de Fuca, Admiralty inlet, Puget sound, the archipelago De Haro, etc., all of which he surveyed.
Davidson's first work in California was in determining the geographical position of Point Conception, a most important service at that time, for he found that prominent and tempestuous headland over six miles distant from the latest determination in good nautical authority. Having completed the latitude and longi- tude of Point Conception and selected a site for a light house, Davidson proceeded to establish an observatory near Monterey, in connection with a survey for a light house; thence to San Diego, and finally to Cape
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Disappointment, whence he proposed to pass succes- sively to the determination of Capes Orford and Mendocino. As the advance of winter rendered it necessary to leave the northern field he established stations along the coast of California and determined the longitudes of the principal stations by moon culminations and of the minor stations by means of transported chronometers. He also conducted trian- gulation operations to connect the Santa Barbara Channel islands with the mainland. In the summer of 1852 he turned over this work to Captain E. O. C. Ord, U. S. A., and proceeded with the hydrographic party of Lieutenant Com'g Alden to the Oregon and Washington coasts. For the next five years his time was occupied with the survey of the coasts of Oregon, Washington, the Columbia river, straits of San Juan de Fuca, Canal de Haro, Rosario straits, Puget sound, Admiralty inlet, etc., determining geographical posi- tions, conducting triangulation operations, measure- ments, observation of tides, and all his various geodetic and astronomical duties. On the approach of winter he generally transferred his field of operations to California, occupying his time on his charts, reports, etc., determining longitudes by means of moon culmi- nations, occultations, and solar eclipses, with latitudes determined according to the most approved methods and with the most delicate instruments. The obser- vations of moon culminations generally extended through three lunations. So great was the care exer- cised by Professor Davidson and so exact his work that the superintendent of the survey characterized it as unique in the history of geodesy. Working as he
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did in comparatively unknown waters he had constant occasion to use the lead, and when seeking for an anchorage, drifting with the currents, or on boat duty, he almost invariably kept it going from his own hand. The exposure to which he was subjected, the landing through the surf of icy seas, and the inclemency of the weather, brought on chronic rheumatism, but while his personal energy kept him in the field for a time, in August, 1857, he was obliged to leave his work, seek medical treatment, and he found it advisable to return to the Atlantic coast, which he did in November, and reported to Washington at the end of that month.
In November, 1859, Davidson was back on the Pacific coast in full charge of all primary and secondary triangular work and in October 5, 1860, received orders to report at Washington. He left California November 5th of that year and was assigned to hydrographic service in certain portions of the Delaware river. In April, 1862, Davidson, in the surveying schooner, Vixen, carrying two Parrot guns and other means of making and resisting attack, proceeded to the Florida reefs where he was engaged in making soundings. In January and February, 1863, he made some surveys for the navy department at League island, Delaware river, and in June, July, and August, constructed, at the request of the military authorities, elaborate defensive works around Philadelphia, which had been threatened by an incursion of Confederates under General Lee. His employment on the Atlantic coast continued until 1867 and included a survey of the Isthmus of Panama for a ship canal to connect the
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waters of the Gulf of Darien with those of the Gulf of San Miguel. In June, 1867, he was ordered to make a general reconnaissance of the coasts of Alaska, just transferred to the United States. The United States revenue cutter Lincoln was placed at the service of the Davidson party and he arrived at Fort Simpson, a Hudson's Bay Company's post on Chatham Sound, August 3d, and at Sitka August 12th. The survey was necessarily a brief one. He went to the headwaters of the Lynn Canal, to the Kadiak group, and to Unalaska; thence back to Sitka and through the archi- pelago Alexander. On November 4th he was at Fort Simpson and on the 14th arrived at San Francisco. His report of November 30, 1867, is most interesting and with that of a subsequent trip in 1869 contains about all that was known of that distant land for many years. In this report Professor Davidson gives a full and particular report of the Kuroshiwo, the Black Current of Japan, that exerts such a great influence on the climate of the coast of North America above 32° 30'. On his return to Washington in 1868, Davidson was called into conference with Secretary of State Seward and Secretary of the Treasury Mccullough; appeared be- fore the foreign relations committee of the senate; the ways and means committee of the house of representa- tives; conferred with Senator Sumner and others, and appeared before the National Academy of Sciences, by invitation, to relate the chief points of scientific interest gathered in his Alaska reconnaissance.
In November, 1868, Davidson returned to California and in August following went to Alaska to observe the solar eclipse of August 7th. He left Sitka in an open
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boat and a war canoe loaded with provisions, declining a military escort and relying upon his knowledge of the Chilkahts. They were eleven days in reaching the vil- lage of Klu-wan, on the Chilkaht river, and were fired upon three times in going up the river, but, although well armed they showed no resistance. Two days before the eclipse, William H. Seward, ex-secretary of state, arrived at the mouth of the Chilkaht on the steamer Active and Davidson sent a swift canoe down to bring him up. He was received with great gravity and ceremony by Koh-klux, the great Chilkaht chief, and about four hundred of his people. This Indian chief, in August, 1852, went down the Lewis river to the Yukon and destroyed the Hudson's Bay Company's post, Fort Selkirk. He had also gone down the All-segh river to the Pacific. In 1869 he made for George Davidson a map of the rivers, lakes, trails, and mountains, from the Chilkaht to the Yukon.
Returning from Alaska Davidson made a number of observations at points on the Oregon, Washington, and California coasts. He also set up a temporary observatory in Washington square, San Francisco, to determine the difference of longitude between San Francisco and Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was now required, in addition to his own work to lay out the work for all land parties on the Pacific coast and advise with them and inspect all the fields of work. In 1870 he conducted triangulations at Magdalena bay, made general reconnaissance between San Diego and Panama, and from Magdalena bay to Alaska. The year 1871 was passed partly on the Atlantic coast. In 1873 he was sent to San José del Cabo to identify
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the transit of Venus station occupied by the French astronomer in 1769. In this he was successful after overcoming great difficulties. He was also appointed by the president one of three commissioners to investi- gate and report plans for the irrigation of the lands of the Sacramento, San Joaquin, and Tulare valleys, and in the latter part of 1863 entered into this work with his usual vigor.
In 1874 he was appointed chief astronomer of a party organized to observe the transit of Venus in Japan. He sailed from San Francisco August 29th and estab- lished his observatory in Nagasaki. He was also able to render friendly service to Japan in assisting the officials of that government in establishing their first observatory, selecting and trying their instruments and instructing the men in their use. Professor Davidson was also instructed by his chief to make a special examination of the harbors of Japan, China, India, Egypt, and Europe, particularly in regard to break- waters, in view of the scarcity of protected harbors on the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington. He was likewise instructed to make careful study of the irrigation system of India and to note methods of field work for the geodesy of India and elsewhere, and to compare appliances with our own resources for trian- gulation. This was all accomplished and at the end of February, 1876, he presented an elaborate report on the result of his observations. During the next few years he was engaged in his regular work and in 1878 was sent to Paris to examine and report upon the instruments of precision applicable to astronomy and geodesy deposited for exhibition in the International
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Exposition of 1878. Here he was appointed on a jury of twenty-two members on machines and was unani- mously elected president of the jury. For this service he received the large medal of the French government. His report states that while the inspection revealed much of deep interest there was nothing to discourage observers and mechanicians in the United States from claiming equality of rank with any in skill and precision. After his duties at the exposition were ended he visited the most noted workshops of Paris and the principal manufactories of Geneva, Neuchatel, Munich, Vienna, Dresden, Berlin, Hamburg, Cassel, London, and York; and early in December, 1878, was again in San Francisco and busy as usual with his regular work.
It is not necessary to give further details of Professor Davidson's regular work. A sub-office of the Coast and Geodetic Survey was created in San Francisco in 1876 with Professor Davidson in charge, and thereafter all reports were forwarded through him. He erected an observatory in Lafayette Park about 1884 and maintained it for several years at his own expense.
Very early in his work on the Pacific coast of the United States Professor Davidson became deeply interested in the early Spanish navigators who had followed the coast from Cape San Lucas to Alaska. He studied their narratives and endeavored, with considerable degree of success, to reconcile their dis- crepancies. The same course was taken with the English, American, and French navigators who followed. Much difficulty was experienced in ascertaining the proper names of localities and their orthography. With a changing population names are readily lost,
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changed, or corrupted. Land parties consult residents of places on shore, and hydrographic parties, the pilots, fishermen and sea-faring men. Two sets of names are frequently presented, neither of which may be correct. Different names were sometimes given by successive discoverers or explorers to the same points, indentations, bays, and sounds. These often replaced aboriginal names, or names given by land expeditions, or by missionaries, which had been retained in their pure, uncorrupted form. Mistakes and the various titles and orthographies were exceedingly perplexing, and in some instances names were altered more than once, modes of spelling were changed and restored, and the whole subject seemed one of great uncertainty. It was then of the first importance to trace the history of discovery on the coast; to ascertain the original names and the successive ones; to restore those which were corrupted, and to fix those uncorrupted beyond the power of change; to go back to the earlier names when the later had not become so permanently attached to the localities as to make it too difficult; and in short to make the coast survey maps and charts the standard for names and their spelling, as well as for the geography of the country.
Notwithstanding the exacting conditions and the exhaustive character of his work, Professor Davidson found time to write a Directory for the Pacific coast. In his letter of transmittal to the superintendent of the survey, dated August 29, 1858, he states that in moving continually along the seaboard in performance of his work he early felt the want of reliable informa-
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tion, in tangible form, instead of trusting to memory, and he determined to embody for publication the information required, but for several years failing health prevented the execution of more than the regu- lar duties. Now, as his health had forced him for a time to leave the Pacific coast, he felt he must arrange the matter while yet freshly photographed upon the mind. A small portion had been published in San Francisco (in 1855) and, although abounding in typo- graphical errors, the avidity with which it was sought was a strong incentive to complete his self-imposed task. "The result," he says, "is now placed at your disposal, and having examined all the courses, distances, and positions, I trust that no essential errors have been overlooked, but whatever have, fall upon my own shoulders."
This Directory was gladly received by the superin- tendent and published in full in his report of 1858. In 1862, Davidson wrote a second edition embodying all the information collected since 1849, and this was published in the superintendent's report of 1862. A third edition of this work was published as the "Coast Pilot for California, Oregon, and Washington," in 1868, and in 1887 he transmitted to the office the manuscript for the fourth edition of this invaluable work. He also published in 1868, the Directory of the Coast of Alaska ("Coast Pilot of Alaska," Part I). The amount of literary work accomplished by him was wonderful and two hundred and sixty-one books and papers on scien- tific and historical subjects attest the great industry of a busy man.
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In 1908 the American Geographical Society conferred upon him the Charles P. Daly medal for "Fifty years of distinguished work in Geodesy."
He was a member of the
National Academy of Sciences of the United States, Correspondent of the Bureau of Longitudes of France, Correspondent of the Academy of Sciences of the French Institute,
Correspondent of the Swedish Anthropological and Geographical Society,
Honorary Corresponding Member of the Royal Geographical Society,
Honorary Member of the Geographical Association of Berlin,
Honorary Professor of Geodesy and Astronomy and Professor of Geography in the University of California,
Knight Companion of the Royal Order of Saint Olaf in Norway.
He was for sixteen years president of the California Academy of Sciences, for thirty years president of the Geographical Society of the Pacific and was a member of other learned societies.
The degree of A.M. was conferred on him by the High School in Philadelphia in 1850.
Ph.D. by Santa Clara College in 1876.
Sc.D. by University of Pensylvania in 1889.
LL.D. by University of California in 1910.
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Professor Davidson's work in the coast and geodetic survey, his study of the narratives, diaries, correspond- ence, and other original documents of the early explorers both by sea and on land, together with his knowledge of the aborigines, made him the best authority on matters of early history of the Pacific coast, and his papers and publications on historical subjects are most interesting and valuable. His testimony as an expert was frequently required in the great land cases, and it was his rule to refuse employment from either party to a suit, requiring a subpoena of the court, and then his testimony was given. In the Limantour case-a claim involving most of the property of the city of San Francisco-his testimony ended the case. Limantour was arrested, deposited thirty thousand dollars bail, fled the country, and never returned. Davidson's work on the Alaska boundary, the boundary between the United States and British Columbia, and that between California and Nevada is of special value.
In his article on "Francis Drake on the Northwest Coast of America," the author speaks of himself as one who in a somewhat long life of activity on this coast had enjoyed opportunities that would not again fall to the lot of one man. It was a just claim. He was the pioneer and he saw his work practically completed.
I have given enough of the detail of Professor Davidson's life to show the character of his work. As a man he was kindly in disposition and was very genial with friends. He ever held his vast fund of information for the benefit of all and few men were so appealed to for advice, while his powers as a conversationalist and raconteur ever made him a most delightful companion.
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His long and useful life came to an end December 2, 1911. His memory needs no monument of stone or bronze. It is written in the hearts of those who go down to the sea in ships.
goeth Buty . Udre .
THE DEVELOPMENT OF CALIFORNIA
O ALIFORNIA is unique not so much in posses- sions which may not be approximated elsewhere in the world-for perhaps of all her wonders only the redwoods are confined to her boun- daries-as in the remarkable combinations of conditions and products which exist elsewhere only in widely separated localities.
To Cabrillo who came with his Portuguese sailors into San Diego bay, undoubtedly the new country seemed one of sunshine, balmy breezes, and semi-arid conditions. To Drake who spent a full month on the bay that bears his name, it was a country of fresh west winds blowing the sea fog across green hills and through redwood cañons. The fog shrouded the Golden Gate so that he sailed past the greatest harbor on the Pacific coast line without discovering it. To the Russian traders who came down from the north on hunting expeditions for furs, California meant a rugged country covered with noble forests where wild animals hid from their hunters. To the Donner party, belated in the high sierra on their transcontinental journey, California was a land of alpine heights, buried in heavy snows, and bound by bitter cold. To others of the transcon- tinental travelers, coming in answer to the call of California gold, the reality of the new country proved to be a burning desert and the name of Death valley records the tragic fate they met. The Mission fathers by perseverance and relentless braving of a new country learned to know California more truly than those who went before them and many who came after them. Starting at San Diego and pushing northward until they had established twenty-one missions all the way
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from that town to Sonoma, forty-five miles north of San Francisco bay, they learned that California was a country of diverse conditions. Mountain and desert, heat and cold, with the delightful mediums of altitude, temperature, and moisture, which rested their souls in those days of stress and have called to all the world in later days-all these they found. Yet by carefully selecting their mission sites, they were able in every in- stance to grow fruits about their buildings, though the most southerly and northerly of these were separated by seven hundred miles.
The rapidity of modern transportation today saves the traveler entering California for the first time, from a one-sided conception of the state such as earlier visitors quite naturally had. A few hours of travel bring him from the wintry summits of the Sierra Nevada, down through the forest-clad slopes, to the fertile level of the great valley where crops grow the year round, or into the land of citrus fruits where the golden and green orchards stand against a background of snowy moun- tains. If he comes in the summer time, he crosses the warm interior of the state, and almost before he has forgotten to drop the fan from his hand, feels the need of his overcoat against the moist coolness of the coast. Mountain to valley, desert to seashore, cold to warm- in the unusual combinations of these and the conditions they produce is the real uniqueness of California.
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