EEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 33 



American history was especially favored with both gifts and loans, 

 among the distinguished persons and families represented by the 

 memorials received being Gen. Peter Gansevoort, of Revolutionary 

 time, and his son and grandson; Rear Admirals Winfield Scott 

 Schley and Andrew H. Foote, United States Navy; Commanders 

 Matthew Fontaine Maury and Harry H. Hosley, United States 

 Na\^' ; Gen. George A. Custer, United States xVrmy ; the Marquis de 

 Lafayette; Prof. George Frederic Barker; Mr. and Mrs. Samuel 

 S. Cox; Julia Ward Howe; the Washington and Ball families; the 

 Cropper and McLane families; the Bradford family, of New Eng- 

 land; and the Bailey-Myers-Mason family. The collection of numis- 

 matics acquired two valuable series of several hundred pieces each, 

 one representing the Polish coinage from 1386 to 1835, the other 

 consisting of antique copper coins from Asia. Exceptionally im- 

 portant was the transfer to the National Museum of the museum 

 of the Post Office Department, so well known to visitors to Washing- 

 ton, comprising the large and unique series of United States postage 

 stamps, besides many objects relating to the operations of the postal 

 service. 



The most conspicuous acquisition by the department of biology 

 consisted of the collection made by Mr. Paul J. Rainey on his expe- 

 dition to British East Africa, accompanied by Mr. Edmund Heller, 

 which was generously presented. It contains about 4,000 mammals, 

 besides many hundreds of birds, reptiles, fishes, and invertebrates, 

 and has already yielded a large number of new forms. Much mate- 

 rial was also received from several other natural history expeditions 

 beyond the United States conducted by the Institution and Museum 

 or under other auspices, the principal regions visited having been the 

 Aleutian Islands, British Columbia and Alberta, the Panama Canal 

 Zone, the Bahama Islands, Peru, Abyssinia and British East Africa, 

 the Altai Mountains on the borders of Siberia and Mongolia, Kash- 

 mir, and Borneo. Within the confines of the United States a number 

 of minor explorations were carried on by members of the staff. 



The transfers made by the Bureau of Fisheries were extensive and 

 important, consisting mainly of collections that had been studied and 

 described and containing much type material. The fishes were from 

 Japan, the Philippine Islands, and various parts of the United 

 States, while the marine invertebrates, numbering over 27,000 speci- 

 mens of several groups, represented explorations by the steamer 

 Albatross in different parts of the Pacific Ocean. The increases in 

 the division of insects were chiefly from the Bureau of Entomologj', 

 and in the herborium from the Bureau of Plant Industry, though 

 many specimens were secured for the latter by exchange and as the 

 result of field work in New Mexico. 



