REPORT ON EXCHANGES. 



51 



selves of auy aud all aunoyances and cost attending the printing and 

 publishing of their various issues by giving the manuscript in com- 

 mission. to some enterprising and reliable publishing house. Thus the 

 work is at once thrown in the book trade and represents a commercial 

 value, and copies can only be supplied through the firm holding the 

 work on commission. The department may receive probably some 50 

 per cent, of the proceeds of the sales, which income greatly lessens the 

 cost of preparing the manuscript. The respective departments cau 

 obtain copies only by purchase, and no legislation existing in those 

 countries like our Congressional act authorizing the exchange of official 

 documents, the one bureau, having undertaken the collecting and pro- 

 viding for the exchange with other Governments, has a very difficult 

 task in obtaining from the other departments the works required for 

 the purpose. It has no right to demand, but it is always the suppli- 

 cant for a favor, since such only it can be considered. 



"Furthermore, the bureaus of exchange established (on the basis 

 adopted by the Paris convention in 1875) in a number of European 

 states are greatly restricted in their modus operandi by well-defined 

 laws, which prescribe distinctly that the official publications obtained 

 in the manner above described, and purchased from funds exclusively 

 allowed for the purpose, can be exchanged only for works of the same 

 (commercial) value. This, however, is a difficult matter in the case of 

 the United States publications, which represent no commercial value, 

 although they command very high figures in the book trade. I beg leave 

 here to quote from an English catalogue the prices of some of the more 

 important United States publications — the figures reduced to American 

 currency : 



Publications. 



Prices. 



Contributious to North American Ethnology, vol. 4 



Contributions to North American Ethnology, vol. 5 



Anmuil Reports, Bureau of Ethnology per volume. . 



U. S. Fish Commission Reports, 8 volumes 



Tenth Census per volume, about. . 



Tenth Census, vol. 8 



Commercial Relations of the United States, 1880-1884 per set . . 



Iron aud Steel, 2 volumes 



Annual Report Secretary of War, 1880 per set.. 



Mineral Resources of the United States per volume.. 



Mines aud Mining do 



Paris Exhibitiou per set.. 



Black Hills of Dakota 



Hayden Survey, 9 volumes, 4to 



Hayden Survey, Annual Reports, 12 volumes 



Hayden Survey, Atlas of Colorado 



Kiug Survey, Fortieth Parallel per set.. 



U. S. Geological Survey (Powell), Annual Reports per volume.. 



U. S. Geological Survey, monograph, vol. 2 



U. S. Geological Survey, monograi)h, vol. 3 



U. S. Geological Survey, monograph, vol. 4 



U. S. Geological Survey, monograph, vol. 5 



Wheeler, Surveys West of the 100th Meridian per set. . 



Defenses of Washington 



$11 25 



10 50 



12 50 



45 00 



5 00 



15 75 



27 50 



10 50 



10 50 



7 50 



7 50 



10 50 

 18 75 

 75 00 

 63 00 

 15 75 



157 00 



7 50 



21 00 



21 00 



7 50 



14 25 



130 00 



11 25 



