56 REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 



for freights. The benefits.resulting from such liberality have of course 

 been experienced by all departments of operations, but chiefly in that 

 of exchanges and of the collections. The parties to which the Institu- 

 tion is chiefly indebted are as follows: 



The North German Lloyd, a line of steamships between New 

 York and Bremen, of which Messrs. Gelpcke, Keutgen, and Reichelt, 

 of New York, are agents. The Pacific Mail Steamship Company, be- 

 tween San Francisco and various ports of Oregon and Washington, to 

 the north, and Panama to the south; of which Mr. W. 0. Davidge 

 was president for a time— succeeded by Mr. Allen McLane. Also, the 

 Panama Railroad Company, Mr. David Hoadley, President. The 

 steamer connection with California was, at the date of the last report, 

 formed by the North Atlantic Steamship Company, Mr. I. W. Ray- 

 mond, President ; and the Institution had the privilege of transmitting 

 its exchanges both ways free of charge. Since the new arrangements, 

 by which the vessels of Commodore Vanderbilt replace those of the 

 last mentioned company, this privilege has been somewhat interrupted ; 

 the agent of Commodore Vanderbilt declining to continue it between 

 New York and Aspinwall. I am, however, happy to report that no 

 serious interruption beyond a little delay has resulted, as Mr. Hoadley 

 has authorized the free transmission of Smithsonian parcels by the brig 

 line of the Panama railroad between New York and Aspinwall. 



To Mr. A. B. Forbes, agent of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, 

 in San Francisco, aided by Mr. Samuel Hubbard, the Institution is 

 under many obligations, in acting as general agents for it in Cali- 

 fornia. 



The great facilities authorized by the Adams Express Company, 

 through Superintendent S. M. Shoemaker, and at present exercised by 

 the Washington agent, Mr. McLaughlin, mentioned in the last report, 

 have been continued the past year, greatly to the interest of the Insti- 

 tution. 



. The Cunard steamers, between New York and Liverpool, have car- 

 ried many packages free of charge during the year. 



In addition to the parties first mentioned, assistance has been ren- 

 dered, as heretofore, to the exchanges and explorations conducted by 

 the Institution, by the steamer Isabel, running between Charleston 

 and Havana; by Mr. W. H. Russell, army contractor of transporta- 

 tion, and by other parties. , 



The services of the parties named above have all been gratefully 

 mentioned in preceding reports. To the directors and officers generally 

 of the honorable Hudson's Bay Company, through the late Sir George 

 Simpson, governor in this country, the Smithsonian Institution has to 

 acknowledge its special indebtedness. In addition to the aid afforded 

 to the various enterprises of Hudson's Bay explorations on the part of 

 the Institution, referred to elsewhere, it has carried a very large amount 

 of freight in its canoes, free of charge, consisting of supplies to various 

 points, and returns of meteorological records and specimens of natural 

 history. Without such assistance the expense of conducting scientific 

 explorations in the far north -would be so great as entirely to preclude 

 the possibility of any such enterprises on the part of the Institution. 



