182 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



end of March by Professor Herbert C. Bell, of Bowdoin College, and 

 Miss Pierce, of the regular staff of the Department. A domestic calam- 

 ity calling him home greatly abridged the time which Mr. Bell was able 

 to spend in the islands, but, by the joint efforts of the two agents, 

 notes were taken from which an adequate account of the archives of 

 Bermuda can be compiled, on a scale comparable to tliat with which 

 the archives of the other West Indian islands will ultimately be treated. 

 Bermuda was never a large or important colony, but its colonial history 

 begins so early, and its archives have been so much less affected than 

 those of the Antilles by wars, conquests, the ravages of insects, earth- 

 quakes, hurricanes, and other incidents of tropical climate, tliat they 

 form a long and large series, having a considerable significance for the 

 student of British colonial history in general and even of the mainland 

 colonies in particular. Mr. Bell and Miss Pierce were with great 

 courtesy permitted to examine nearly all the papers down to the year 

 1854, but not beyond that point. The thanks of the Institution are 

 especially due to Mr. E. A. Gosling, assistant secretary of the colony, 

 who gave much useful help to their researches. 



In the work upon the ''Atlas of the historical geography of the United 

 States," Dr. Paullin, with the aid of the draftsman, Mr. J. B. Bronson, 

 has completed several series of maps belonging to the general division 

 relative to lands and land-policy. These series a,re those relating to 

 colonial grants, colonial claims and possessions, the land claims of States 

 and their cessions of land to the United States, the cessions of land by 

 Indian tribes, the States projected and formed west of the Alleghenies, 

 the military reserves, and the territorial acquisitions of the United 

 States. He has also prepared the letterpress accompanying all these 

 series, excepting the Last. He has prepared the text accompanying 

 those maps respecting immigration and foreign population which were 

 reported a year ago as completed, and has made progress on the maps 

 intended to illustrate the development of federal surveying and the 

 grants of land to the States for the support of education. 



Mr. David M. Matteson, of Cambridge, Alassachusetts, though 

 diverted during about half of the months of the year to work for others, 

 has during the other half made substantial progress in his work for the 

 Institution, the work of searching in printed catalogues of manuscripts 

 in European libraries for those items which disclose and describe manu- 

 scripts relating to American history. Having practically completed 

 the bibliographical search for titles of books and articles in which such 

 catalogues or minor lists are included, he lias proceeded to the search 

 for American items in those catalogues and lists. Thus far he has 

 carried this process through the letter M, in alphabetical order of towns. 

 The total number of manuscripts bearing on American history^ thus re- 

 vealed is not numerous, but hardly one of them was known before to 

 those students who would be most interested in their existence. It 



