50 REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 



Work done in the museum. 



The systematic registration of the Smithsonian collections has been 

 carried on as rapidly as other duties would admit. The number of 

 species labeled and entered during the year amounted to 5,271 ; most 

 of them in three dijS'erent series of records, making nearly 15,000 entries. 

 It may be proper to state that all collections, as received, are entered in 

 a general record book, of which the alphabetical list of donations ap- 

 pended to this report is a trau script. The different specimens are 

 next labeled and then entered on the record for the class, or particular 

 order, and from this posted in a ledger consisting of separate sheets, 

 one for each species, systematically arranged, and each sheet contain- 

 ing an enumeration of all the specimens of its species, with the lo- 

 calities, sex, date, measurements and other memoranda, making the 

 third time of writing out the name and statistics. In this way not 

 only can information be obtained of the number of species of each class 

 or order, but also of the separate specimens, with the locality and gen- 

 eral character of each one. The posting up is complete for the mam- 

 mals, birds, and osteological specimens, and well under way for the 

 reptiles and fishes, and some orders of invertebrates. 



During the past year the general report on the mammals of the 

 Smithsonian collection has been completed and printed, forming volume 

 VIII of the Report of the Pacific Railroad Survey. That on the birds 

 is far advanced, and will be finished in the course of the ensuing 

 year, which will also, it is hoped^ witness the completion of reports 

 on the reptiles and fishes. 



Distribution and use of the Smithsonian collections. 



As in previous years, the Smithsonian specimens have been freely 

 used by students and investigators in natural history, in preparation 

 of Monographs and other researches. Duplicates have also been dis- 

 tributed to a considerable extent, and as the collections become better 

 arranged and other circumstances allow, it is hoped to make such 

 distribution on a very extensive scale. 



List of Donations during the year 1857. 



C. Bellmann. — Fishes, &c., in alcohol, from Mississippi. 



J. and A. Brakeley. — Fresh deer and otter from Virginia ; jar of birds, 

 mammals and reptiles from the AUeghenies of Virginia. 



J. Mason Broiun. — Cast of the skull of Daniel Boone, taken previous 

 to the re-interment of his remains. 



Lieutenant F. T. Bryan, U. S. A. — Three boxes of zoological spe- 

 cimens collected by William S. Wood on the wagon-road expedition 

 from Fort Riley to Bridger's Pass. 



Archibald Campbell. — One box of dried skins, and one chest of alco- 

 holic specimens collected on Puget Sound by Dr. Kennerly, on the 

 northwest boundary survey. 



J. H. Clark. — Chest with two cans filled with reptiles, fishes and 



