1912]  Collins,— Papers of Wilkes Exploring Expedition 65 
an earlier Vol. VIII by Titian R. Peale. The official set bas this as 
Vol. VIII, part 1, the Cassin volume being part 2. Peale was with 
the expedition in charge of the department of Birds and Mammals, 
and on his return prepared the plates and wrote the volumes of text. 
This was printed and distributed to the states and presumably to the 
foreign powers. Wilkes, who had taken on the superintendence of the 
publications, was dissatisfied with Peale’s work, and arranged with 
Cassin to prepare a new volume in place of it. The copies which had 
been distributed were not recalled, but all remaining copies appear to 
have been destroyed, including the copy of the Library of Congress, 
which lacks this volume. I cannot find that any author's copies were 
printed, and it must be considered one of the rarest of scientific works. 
Some good ornithologists, to whom I wrote inquiring about it, had 
never heard of it. Two ornithologists, both of high authority, knew 
it; one writes me that the 100 or more new species described in it were 
properly reduced by Cassin to about 30; the other writes me that 
Cassin severely condemned Peale’s descriptions, but modern ornithol- 
ogists consider Cassin’s descriptions little better. 
The rarest of the botanical works is probably the Atlas to Vol. XVII, 
Ferns etc. by Brackenridge, but the reason for this rarity I do not 
know. Vol. XV, Phanerogamia, is sometimes found without the Atlas, 
and vice versa. Sabin,! states that by some mistake a large part of 
the edition of the plates was sold at auction, unbound, without the 
text. I can find no details as to this, but one copy of the Atlas in 
the Boston Public Library was presented by Leonard & Co., January 
5, 1858. Leonard & Co. were leading book auctioneers in Boston for 
many years, and may have made the sale referred to. 
To explain the non-publication of Vols. XVIII, XXI, XXII and 
XXIV would take much space and would bring up interesting but not 
specially edifying stories of inefficiency, extravagance and plunder, 
which when compared with present conditions, indicate that the 
standards jn such matters are higher now than in the days of the 
fathers. At the time the publication was authorized there was no 
National Museum, no Smithsonian Institution, practically no organ 
that could deal with scientific matters; Congress, probably with a 
vague feeling that literature had something to do with science, and 
1 Books relating to America, Vol. VII, p. 395. 
2 Details of dissensions following the expedition, and reports on manner of pub- 
lishing will be found in Cong. Doc., Vol. 494, No. 47, Vol. 495, No. 217, Vol. 994, 
No. 391 and Vol. 1667, No. 60. 
