EEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 41 



parties who fully appreciated the importance of making a satisfactory 

 competitive display in view of the anticipated rivalry of foreign govern- 

 ments. Among these, acknowledgment is especially due to Messrs. 

 Bradford & Anthony, of Boston, for undertaking to bring together the 

 fullest series of objects used by the American angler ; to Messrs. A. E. 

 Crittenden & Co., of Middletown, Conn., who in like manner i)repared the 

 collection of boat-fittings, fisherman's equipments, clothing, &c.j to the 

 American Net and Twine Company, of Boston and New York, which 

 supplied samples of nets of all kinds, models of pounds and fishing-boats, 

 and furnished also miles of netting to serve as ornamental drai)ery to 

 the building. Mr. J. H. Nichols, of Syracuse, and Mr. Thaddeus Norris, 

 of PJiiladelphia, also supplied from their private collections a number 

 of angler's equipments. 



Here, as in the case of other objects, space does not permit more ex- 

 tended mention ; but the detailed enumeration will be found in the list 

 of donations. 



The additions to the collections of minerals were enormously large, 

 the principal and most important being a series of ores of the precious 

 metals collected in California, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, and else- 

 where, by Mr. Thomas Donaldson, and representing a money value far 

 greater than its actual cost, in view of the donation of the specimens 

 by the owners and the agents of various mines. 



The collections made by Professor Blake on Lake Superior, by Mr. G. 

 C. Brodhead in Missouri anU elsewhere, by Mr. Maury in West Virginia, 

 and by other parties, were also noteworthy. By far the most valuable 

 direct donation, however, was that of the collection of ores and minerals 

 of Nevada collected by the State Centennial board and exhibited with 

 the Smithsonian display. These, with all the cases in which the speci- 

 mens were exhibited, were presented to the National Museum by the 

 authority of the legislature of Nevada, the same disposition having 

 been made of the very valuable collections of Montana and Utah. 

 Gen. J. H. Wilder, of Chattanooga, presented a large number of speci- 

 mens from Tennessee. Other series of more or less note will be found 

 detailed in the list of donations; 



The present of three large boxes filled with choice minerals of Japan 

 by the government of that country is also a noteworthy addition. 



It will be seen from the preceding enumeration that all parts of 

 North America are represented in the accessions of 1875 and 1876, and 

 so uniformly indeed that no one region can be indicated as more worthy 

 of notice than another. 



From Central and South America have been received collections in 

 ethnology and zoology; from the South Pacific a general collection in 

 natural history ; from Japan collections in ethnology and mineralogy. 

 Apart from the Centennial donations comparatively little has been sent 

 in ffom Europe, a few specimens of birds and ethnological objects rep- 

 resenting the series. With the acquisitions made at Philadelphia, 



