REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 11 



lies ill this country having 25,000 volumes; 4th, they are presented in 

 some cases to still smaller libraries, especially if no other copies of the 

 Smithsonian publications are given in the same place, and a large dis- 

 trict would be otherwise unsupplied. To institutions devoted exclu- 

 sively to the promotion of i)articular branches of knowledge, such of its 

 publications are given as relate to their special objects. 



Smithsonian Contributions to Knoivledge. — A worlv on "Prehistoric 

 Fishing in Europe and North America," by Dr. Charles Rau, men- 

 tioned in my last report (that for 1884:) as being in type and nearly 

 ready for the press, was printed and published early in the year, and 

 has since been distributed in accordance with the general practice 

 adopted. This work forms a volume of 342 pages (including the index), 

 with 18 pages of introductory matter, in all 360 pages, and is illus- 

 trated with 406 figures. Part I, occupying nearly one-third of the 

 memoir, is devoted to the archjeological relics of Europe, giving a con- 

 cise though comjirehensive survey of whatever is supposed to relate to 

 fishing, under the three epochs of the palaeolithic age, the neolithic 

 age, and the bronze age. Part II is occupied with the archieological 

 fishing relics of North America, under the general headings of " Fish- 

 ing Implements and Utensils," "Boats and Apiiurtenauces," " Prehis- 

 toric Structures connected with Fishing," "Aboriginal Representations 

 of Fishes, Aquatic Mammals, &c.," and, lastly, "Artificial Shell-Depos- 

 its." This descriptive summary is supplemented by an interesting col- 

 lection of extracts compiled from various writings of the sixteenth, sev- 

 enteenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, in which reference is 

 made to aboriginal fishing in North America. 



During the past year two volumes of the Contributions to Knowledge 

 have been made up from outstanding memoirs. 



Volume XXIV comprises: Article i, "Results of Meteorological Ob- 

 servations made at Providence, R. I., extending over a period of forty- 

 five years, from December, 1831, to December, 1876." By Prof. Alexis 

 Caswell, of Brown University, Providence, R. I. Published in 1882 

 (an account of which was given in the Annual Report for that year). 

 Article ii, " Tables and Results of the Precipitation in Rain and Snow_ 

 in the United States, and at some stations in adjacent parts of North 

 America and in Central and South America. Collected by the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, and discussed under the direction of Joseph Henry 

 and Spencer F. Baird, Secretaries." By Charles A. Schott. Second 

 edition published in 1881 (an 'account of which was given in the An- 

 nual Report for that year). The whole forms a volume of 311 pages, 

 illustrated with 8 diagrams in the text, and accompanied by 5 plates 

 and 5 large folding maps of the United States, showing the curves of 

 equal precipitation for each of the four seasons and also for the year. 



Volume XXV comprises : Article i, " Prehistoric Fishing in Europe 

 and North America." By Dr. Charles Rau (just previously described). 



