130 



large sum being given at an impromptu meeting, after- 

 wards greatly increased by the efforts of Mr. Scammou) 

 and the funds placed in the hands of trustees for the 

 formation of a museum, of which Mr. Kennicott was 

 appointed Director. In 1863 Mr. Kennicott, in order to 

 add to the materials of the museum, accepted the appoint- 

 ment on the Russian American Telegraph Survey. From 

 this ill-fated expedition he never returned. At this time 

 the charge of the museum was given to Dr. Stimpson. 

 On June 7, 1866, a large part of the collection of over 

 forty thousand specimens, and all the plates for the first 

 part of the "Transactions" were destroyed by tire. Soon 

 afterwards the text of the same volume while in the 

 hands of the printer met the same fate. The Academy 

 however started forward with renewed vigor, and erected 

 what in any ordinary tire would have been a fire proof 

 building. Its collections and library were rapidly in- 

 creased, until, at the date of the present calamity it had 

 within its walls one of the, in many respects, most valu- 

 able collections in the country, including the larger part 

 of the Crustacea and other invertebrates belonging to the 

 Government and Smithsonian collections, and the crusta- 

 ceans dredged by Pourtales, which had been sent to the 

 Academy for Dr. Stimpson to describe. The State col- 

 lection of insects made by the late Mr. Walsh, had also 

 been deposited at the Academy. 



The Academy had published its first volume of "Tran- 

 sactions" and forty-eight pages of its "Proceedings." 

 The second volume of "Transactions'' was in a forward 

 condition, and many pages stereotyped and several plates 

 printed and stored at the Academy. 



Mr. F. W. Putnam, after remarks on the great loss 

 which science had met, and an account of his visit to the 



