1853.] 239 



The Academy being informed that the Commissioners of the General Land 

 Office, in Washington, in their estimates for the land surveys of the coming season, 

 have inserted an item for the geological survey of Oregon and the Mauvaises 

 Terres of Nebraska, in which previous surveys have shown there exists the 

 most remarkable and interesting fresh M-ater tertiary geological formation yet 

 discovered iu this country, therefore it is 



Resolved, That the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia earnestly 

 recommends the prosecution of these surveys, believing as it does that the 

 district proposed to be surveyed embraces a portion of the most interesting 

 geological region in this country, and that the result must be of the highest 

 importance to science, and is destined to throw a new light upon the natural 

 history of this continent previous to the period when the mammoth and mas- 

 todon lived. 



Resolved, That the Academy would respectfully urge and request Congress 

 not to permit the opportunity to pass to make the necessary appropriation to 

 accomplish the desirable objects above stated, and have the s'irveys carried out 

 according to the recommendation of the Commissioners of the General Land 

 Office. 



Resolved, That this preamble and series of resolutions be signed by the officers 

 of the Academy, and sent by the Corresponding Secretary to the Commissioners 

 of the Land Office at Washington. 



On motion of Dr. Elwyn, copies of the foregoinof were directed to be 

 sent to the Senators from Pennsylvania, and the Representatives from 

 the city and county of Philadelphia. 



The Society then proceeded to an election for Standing Committees 

 for 1853, with the subjoined result : 



Ethnolog}/, John S. Phillips, S. S. Haldeman, Robert Pearsall ; 

 Cortiparative Anatomy and General Zoology, Joseph Leidy, Edward 

 Hallowell, John Neill; Mammalogy, John L. Le Conte, James C. 

 Fisher, S. W. Woodhouse; Ornithology, John Cassin, Edward Harris, 

 A. L. Heermann ; Ilerpetology and Ichthyology, Edward Hallowell, 

 John Cassin, Gavin Watson; Conchology, Isaac Lea, Thomas B. V\ il- 

 son, W. S. W. Ruschenberger ; Entomology and Crustacea, S, S. Hal- 

 deman, R. Bridges, Wm. S. Zantzinger; Botany, R. Bridges, Wm. 

 S. Zantzinger, Elias Durand ; Palseontology , T. A. Conrad, Joseph 

 Leidy, T. B. Wilson; Geology, J. Price Wetherill, Aubrey H. Smith, 

 Charles E. Smith ; Mineralogy , Wm. S. Vaux, Samuel Ashmead, F. 

 A. Genth ; Physics, James C. Fisher, B. H. Coates, B. Howard Rand; 

 Library, Thomas B. Wilson, R. Bridges, R. E. Peterson ; Proceedings^ 

 Wm. S. Zantzinger, Joseph Leidy, W. S. W. Ruschenberger. 



ELECTION OF MEMBERS AND CORRESPONDENT. 



Prof. Robley Dunglison, Dr.Wm. V. Keating, and Dr. Addinell Hew- 

 son, of Philadelphia, were elected Members ; and Lieut. M. F. Maury, 

 U. S. Navy, Superintendent of the National Observatory at Washington, 

 was elected a Correspondent. 



38 



