46 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



received the necessary instructions for his work. At the latest advices 

 he had reached San Diego and commenced his investigations of the 

 fisheries, with the promise of exhaustive results there and at other 

 points on the coast. He is provided by the National Museum with the 

 necessary apparatus for making collections on a liberal scale, to serve 

 as illustrations of the fishery statistics. 



The collecting and exhibition of what may be considered vouchers of 

 his labors are very necessary, since the names of our Eastern species 

 are largely applied to Western forms in every respect different from 

 them ; and without the means of examination and comparison much 

 confusion would result. Thus, what is called cod in San Francisco has 

 no relation to the cod of the Eastern coast, belonging to an entirely 

 different group. 



Among the explorations of the year, and especially rich in ethno- 

 logical results, is that prosecuted by Mr. S. T. Walker, on the west 

 coast of Florida. With this gentlemen the Institution has been in com- 

 munication for several years, and lias received from him many valuable 

 archaeological objects. During the past year he has been engaged in 

 a systematic survey of the mounds in the vicinity of Clear Water, Fla., 

 and has found evidence to show that at the time of their construction 

 white men were in the vicinity, from whom were obtained numerous 

 articles of ornament, &c. Conspicuous among these are gold and silver 

 beads, portions of bronze fittings of gun locks, Venetian beads, frag- 

 ments of Spanish pottery, &c. From all the indications, it is possible 

 that these were obtained from some of the early Spanish invaders, or 

 other whites, at no distant period from the time of De Soto's conquest. 



Many collections of reptiles, living and in alcohol, fishes, mammals, 

 and birds have also been furnished by Mr. Walker. 



Mr. James W. Miluer, the. Assistant Fish Commissioner of the United 

 States, was obliged by ill health to spend the winter of 1878-'70 in 

 Florida, making his home at Homosassa, on the west coast. Here, 

 although greatly enfeebled by disease which in a great measure crippled 

 his efforts, he obtained, with the help of those about him, very valuable 

 collections of prehistoric remains, birds, fishes, and other natural-history 

 objects. 



Mexico. — Mr. Silas Stearns, formerly of Tensac-ola, and for several 

 years a valued correspondent of the Smithsonian Institution, in the early 

 part of last summer was detailed by Mr. Goode to collect the statistics 

 of fish and the fisheries on the Gulf of Mexico in the interest of the fish- 

 eries branch of the census. For this purpose he chartered a small sloop 

 for use in prosecuting his work. Prom time to time, without interfering 

 with his regular duly, he has succeeded in securing numerous objects of 

 natural history for the National Museum, among them quite a number 

 of fish, some of these, probably, new to science. 



Mr. Robert Ridgway, curator of ornithology in the National Museum, 

 accompanied by a friend, Mr. II. W. Henshaw, made an expedition to 



