14 EEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



otherwise be readily obtained. The vessel returned very soon after, 

 leaving Mr. Turner and his equipment; but his letters indicate his entire 

 satisfection with the prospect, of efficient work both in meteorology and 

 in natural history. We are assured by the company's officer at Fort 

 Ghimo of his hearty co-operation ; and are also gratified at the assurance 

 that, in their season, the variety of objects of natural history is very 

 great, especially of birds, with their nests and eggs. Four boxes of col- 

 lections were received from Mr. Turner by way of London, and found to 

 contain many articles of much interest. In accordance with the under- 

 standiDg Avith Mr. Turner, the collections will all be retained, so that he 

 may work them up at the proper time. 



This may be an appropriate place to mention that, before leaving the 

 country, Mr. Turner completed his elaborate report upon the natural 

 and physical history of Alaska, and left it in the hands of the Chief 

 Signal Officer for such use as he might see fit to make of it. 



A second exploration of Labrador during the year was prosecuted by 

 Mr. Winfred A. Stearns, a New England naturalist who has been in 

 the habit of spending several years successively on the coast, although 

 considerably farther south than the station occupied by Mr. Turner. 

 That gentleman applied to the Institution for the necessary alcohol to 

 preserve objects of marine zoology, and has forwarded to Washington 

 a satisfactory return. A report by him on the various species of animals 

 observed during his successive visits to Labrador has been presented 

 to the Institution, and will shortly be published in the Proceedings of 

 the National Museum. 



Arctic Ocean. — The ill-fated voyage of the Jeannette came to a close 

 by the wrecking of the vessel, and the loss of two out of the three divis- 

 ions into which the party was made up in the effort to reach the actual 

 settlements on the Siberian coasts. Among those saved was Mr. Ray- 

 mond L. Newcomb, the gentleman nominated by the Institution as 

 naturalist to the expedition. Mr. Newcomb was able, in spite of all the 

 privations and trials of the return, to save many of his notes and four 

 specimens of one of the rarest of known birds, namely, Ross' Gull, which 

 is a small species, characterized by a wedge-shaped tail, and having, 

 also, a black ring around the neck, in striking contrast with the other- 

 wise white plumage. Mr. Newcomb knowing well the interest to natur- 

 alists of these specimens, carried them with him, and delivered them 

 to the Smithsonian Institution. They are, naturally, not in very good 

 condition, but would be prizes under any circumstances. 



The disastrous history of the Jeannette, almost unexampled among 

 Arctic explorations in its fatalities, does not come within my province 

 to detail. 



Alaslm. — Of all the stations in this vast and comparatively unknown 

 region, the most important occupied during the year is that at Point 

 Barrow, situated in latitude 71^o N., the northernmost point of conti- 



