THE WILKES EXPEDITION. 421 



counties bear his name, rather to the incon- 

 venience of the postal administration. 



After having visited the capitol and the 

 presidential mansion, and delivered my letters 

 for the Prussian Minister, I went to the Mu- 

 seum of the National Institute. I was impa- 

 tient to satisfy myself as to the scientific value 

 of the results obtained in the field of my own 

 studies by the voyage of Captain Wilkes 

 around the world, this voyage having been 

 the object of equally exaggerated praise and 

 criticism. I confess that I was agreeably sur- 

 prised by the richness of the zoological and 

 geological collections ; I do not think any 

 European expedition has done more or better ; 

 and in some departments, in that of the Crus- 

 tacea, for example, the collection at Washing- 

 ton surpasses in beauty and number of speci- 

 mens all that I have seen. It is especially 

 to Dr. Pickering and Mr. Dana that these 

 collections are due. As the expedition did 

 not penetrate to the interior of the continents 

 in tropical regions, the collections of birds 

 and mammals, which fell to the charge of Mr. 

 Peale, are less considerable. Mr. Gray tells 

 me, however, that the botanical collections are 

 very large. More precious, perhaps, than all 

 the collections are the magnificent drawings 



