REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 27 



inediea have been received from the Government authorities in Cal- 

 cutta and Madras, as also from the directors of the museum at Kurra- 

 chee, iu India. 



During the performance of his functions as Fishery Commissioner to 

 the London Fishery Exhibition, Mr. Goode, Assistant Director of the 

 National Museum, obtained a number of desirable collections in ex- 

 change, and these have added materially to our knowledge, especially 

 of the ichthyology of Europe. ^ 



PUBLICATIONS. 



Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge. — During the past year a me- 

 moir was published belonging to the quarto series of Smithsonian pub- 

 lications, entitled "On the contents of a bone-cave in the island of An- 

 guilla (West Indies)." By Edw. D. Cope. It gives a description of the 

 fossil vertebrates, shells, and also of the indications of human occupa- 

 tion discovered during the excavation of a cave iu the West Indian 

 island of Anguilla. 



The remains were first discovered in 1868, and brief notices of them 

 made, but the publication of a full account was delayed in the hope 

 that other objects might be added to the collection. The memoir was 

 submitted to the Institution in 1878, but the other works in progress 

 prevented its publication until last year. 



The importance of the subject is shown by the fact that it is the first 

 investigation of the life of the cave age in the West Indies; that it gives 

 the first reliable indication of the period of submergence and hence of 

 separation of the West Indian islands ; that it furnishes the first evi- 

 dence as to the antiquity of man iu the West Indies, and that it de- 

 scribes some very peculiar forms of animal life not previously known. 



The paper consists of 34 pages, and contains 5 plates, with 105 fig- 

 ures, the illustratious being made particularly full on account of the 

 archaeological interest attaching to those animals which were probably 

 the contemporaries of the earliest men of tropical America. 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. — For several years past the In- 

 stitution has expended a considerable portion of its publishing fund in 

 reproducing, in the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, the Bulle- 

 tins aud Proceedings of the National Museum ; as also the Proceedings 

 of the Philosophical, Anthropological, and Biological Societies of Wash- 

 ington, this being considered strictly germane to the plan of the Institu- 

 tion and representing both divisions of its functions — the increase aud 

 the diffusion of knowledge. The stereotype plates are furnished free of 

 cost, leaving only the press-work and paper to be provided for. 



By publishing these works in the series of Smithsonian Miscellaneous 

 Collections they are placed in all the principal libraries and establish- 

 ments for research throughout the world; the cost to the Institution 

 being simply that of press-work and paper. This is the only mode by 

 which ample publication can be secured. 



