14 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



I mfty alKO mention here collections of unusual interest and value, 

 made by Dr. W. A. Abbott, in the region of Mount Kil^Mnanjaro, 

 and of those by Mr. William Harvey Brown, of the National Museum, 

 while attached to the United States Eclipse Expedition to the west 

 coast of Africa, under the auspices of the Navy Department. Grate- 

 ful acknowledgments are due Dr. W. H. Kush, U. S. Navy; Mr. J. P. 

 Iddings, U. S. Geological Survey; Mr. E. M. Aaron, of the American 

 Entomological Society; Mr. C. II. Orcutt, of Sau Diego, Cal., from whom 

 specimens secured in their travels have beeu received or are expe(;ted. 

 Mr. Henry W. Elliott, who is now visiting the Seal Islands of Alaska on 

 United States Government business, is expected to secure for the Mu- 

 seum specimens of fur-seal, fishes, and other zoological material. 



In the Bureau of Ethnology I would refer to the mound explorations 

 that have beeu conducted under the immediate superintendence of Prof. 

 Cyrus Thomas, by :\Ir. H. L. Reynolds, :\Ir. J. D. Middleton, and :\ri . 

 James Mooney ; aud to the general field work, chiefly among the Indian 

 tribes, of Mr. W.H.Holmes, Dr. W.J. Hottman, Mr. Victor Miudeleflf, Mr. 

 James Mooney, Mr. Jeremiah Curtin, Mr. J. W. B. Hewitt, aud Mrs. 

 T. E. Stevenson. 



PUBLICATIONS. 



With regard to the character of the works issued by the Institution 

 during the past year, little is to be added to the general statements made 

 in my last report. In each of the three classes of Smithsonian publica- 

 tions, to wit, I, The Contributions to Knowledge ; II, The Miscellaneous 

 Collections; and III, The Annual Reports, about the same amount of 

 productiveness has beeu maintained. 



Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge. — An original memoir by Prof. 

 Alpheus Hyatt on the " Genesis of the Arietidse," illustrated with numer- 

 ous plates, has been published during the year, and this has permitted 

 the completion of the long-delayed twenty-sixth volume of the quarto 

 series. Two other memoirs, relating to the solar corona, have been pub- 

 lished in the same quarto form, but will not probably be included in the 

 volumes of the '" Contributions." 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. — While the number of separate 

 titles under this class has been considerable, many of them are the 

 separate issues of articles contributed at the expense of the Institution 

 to the Annual Reports. It is in contemplation to devote a larger space 

 in the "Collections" than of late to publications connected with the 

 physical sciences ; in which direction may be mentioned as one of the 

 more important issues of the year, an " Index to the Literature of Ther- 

 modynamics," by Mr. Alfred Tuckerman. The demand for copies of the 

 exhausted fourth edition of Guyot's Meteorological and Physical Tables, 

 published in 1S84, has been deemed sutTicientto warrant the revision of 

 the work and the issue of a new edition, which has been for several 

 years under consideration. After obtaining the views of prominent me- 



