lantic coast, accompanied by
the chief of the coast survey, the secretary of the lighthouse
board, the superintendent of the life-saving service, and the chief
of the revenue marine service, and also by Webb Hayes, the son of
the President. We visited the life-saving stations along the New
Jersey coast. I was deeply interested in this service, which I
regard as the most deserving humanitarian branch of the public
service. We also visited some of the leading lighthouses along
the coast and the principal customhouses between the Chesapeake
Bay and Eastport, Maine. We were everywhere received with great
kindness and many social courtesies were extended to us, especially
in New York, Boston and Portland. This outing was a great relief
from the close confinement I had undergone since the 4th of March.
The information I gathered as to these branches of the service,
with which I had not previously had much acquaintance, was of great
value to me. Such trips are sometimes treated by the press as
"junketing" at the public expense. This is a great error. Each
of us paid his share of the expenses and the vessel only pursued
its usual course of duty. I was brought into close association
with these subordinate officers of the department and became informed
of their duties, and their fitness for them, and was enabled to
act with intelligence on their recommendations.

The only unpleasant incident that occurred on the trip was the
running of the cutter upon a rock upon the coast of Maine. This
happened in the afternoon of a beautiful day. All the gentlemen
with me and the officers of the vessel were on deck. The various
buoys were being pointed out and a map of the channel was lying
before us. Some mention was made of a buoy that ought to be near
the place where we were to mark the location of a rock, but none
was found, and suddenly we heard the scraping of the vessel upon
the rock. The cutter trembled and careened over. The captain was
somewhat alarmed and turned the vessel toward the beach, where it
was speedily examined and found to be somewhat injured. We
ascertained afterwards that the buoy had been displaced by a storm
and that a vessel was then on its way to replace it. The sinking
of the revenue cutter "U. S. Grant" was reported in the morning
dispatches and created some excitement; but the vessel did not
sustain any substantial injury. We thought it best to leave it
for a time to be thoroughly examined and