to live in New York. It is not hard
to imagine why so busy a man wished to be more in the centre of things,
though, for that matter, he had not for some years past spent much of
his time at home. There was too much to make him travel. Besides the
frequent voyages which he was ordered to take for the sake of his
health,--and which, as he was a very bad sailor, he said were real
medicine,--he was in demand here and there, in places miles apart, for
professional services; and then, too, he visited many engineering works
in various remote lands,--river improvements, docks, the Suez Canal. It
was not alone that his curiosity was always healthy, but also that his
education--the broad, useful education that he gave himself--was never
ended.

We have seen how he refused to go to Brazil. He was also wanted at
Jacksonville, Florida, where the citizens called him in 1878 to examine
the mouth of the Saint John's River, and to report on the practicability
of deepening the channel through the bar with jetties. He went there,
and, after a personal examination, presented a very elaborate report.
In 1880 the governor of California had requested him to act as
consulting engineer of that State, and he accordingly visited the
Sacramento River, and reported upon the plans for the preservation of
its channel and the arrest of debris from the mines. In 1881 he was
consulted by the Canadian Minister of Public Works on the improvement
of the harbor of Toronto, which he also examined. This was the first
instance in which the Canadian government had ever employed an American
engineer. When he was in Mexico, the government there asked him for
reports on the harbors of Vera Cruz and Tampico and suggestions for
their improvement. Although he did not examine these two harbors
personally, he drew up plans on surveys furnished by engineers whom he
sent there; and the work which has since been carried out after his
instructions has proved eminently satisfactory. Again, it was the
people of Vicksburg who sent for him to tell them how to better their
harbor; and at another time he was consulted about the Columbia River
in Oregon and about Humboldt Bay. In 1885 the Brazilian Emperor made a
second attempt to secure his services for an examination of the Rio
Grande del Sul, but ill health and pressing business prevented his
acceptance of the offer; nor was he able to undertake the examination
of the harbor of Oporto requested by the Portuguese government. It