82 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHESTGTOlSr. 



azon, and the North Pacific exploring expedition under Rogers. 

 These were the days, too, when that extensive exploration of 

 British North America was begun, through the co-operation of 

 the Hudson's Bay Company with the Smithsonian Institution. 



It was the harvest-time of the museums. Agassiz was building 

 up with immense rapidity his collections in Cambridge, utilizing 

 to the fullest extent the methods which he had learned in the 

 great European establishments and the public spirit and generosity 

 of the Americans. Baird was using his matchless powers of 

 organization in equipping and inspiring the ofliicers of the various 

 surveys, and accumulating immense collections to be used in the 

 interest of the future National Museum. 



Systematic natural history advanced with rapid strides. The 

 magnificent folio reports of the Wilkes expedition were now 

 being published, and some of them, particularly those by Dana 

 on the crustaceans and the zoophytes and geology, that of Gould 

 upon the mollusks, those by Torrey, Gray, and Eaton upon the 

 plants, were of great importance. 



The reports of the domestic surveys contained numerous papers 

 upon systematic natural history, prepared under the direction of 

 Baird, assisted by Girard, Gill, Cassin, Suckley, LeConte, Cooper, 

 and others. The volumes relating to the mammals and the birds, 

 prepared by Baird's own pen, were the first exhaustive treatises 

 upon the mammalogy and ornithology of the United States. 



The American Association was doing a great work in popular 

 education through its system of meeting each year in a difterent 

 city. In 1S50 it met in "Charleston, and its entire expenses were 

 paid by the city corporation as a valid mark of public approval, 

 while the foundation of the Charleston museum of natural his- 

 tory was one of the direct results of the meeting. 



In 1S57 it met in Montreal, and delegates from the English 

 scientific societies were present ; this was one of the earliest of 

 those manifestations of international courtesy upon scientific 

 ground of which there have since been many. 



