SCIENTIFIC INTEREST. 5 



portant of the lectures given at this period was a 

 course which I delivered at the instance of Professor 

 Joseph Henry, in the fine lecture-room of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution at Washington. These lectures were 

 the more important, in that they secured to the un- 

 dertaking the friendship and support of Professor 

 A. D. Bache, the learned and efficient chief of the 

 United States Coast Survey. 



In April, 1858, I brought the subject before the 

 American Association for the Advancement of Sci- 

 ence, at its annual meeting held in Baltimore ; and 

 that body of representative men, at the suggestion 

 of Professor Bache, appointed sixteen of its leading 

 members a committee on " Arctic Exploration." 



It remained now only to secure the necessary ma- 

 terial aid. With this object in view, committees were 

 promptly appointed by the American Philosophical 

 Society, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadel- 

 phia, the American Geographical Society, the Lyceum 

 of Natural History of New York, the American Acad- 

 emy of Arts and Sciences, and the Boston Society of 

 Natural History. 



Subscription lists were at once opened by these sev- 

 eral committees, and Professor Bache, at all times fore- 

 most to promote scientific discovery, headed the list 

 with his powerful name. 



The learned Secretary of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion, Professor Joseph Henry, further strengthened the 

 cause by the proffer of scientific instruments, and this 

 was followed by the earnest support of Mr. Henry 

 Grinnell, whose zealous efforts and sacrifices in behalf 

 of Arctic exploration are too well known to gain any 

 thing from my commendation. 



At a subsequent period I addressed the Chamber 



