REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 26 



ral history discussed and in the resulting contributions to our knowledge 

 may properly be bere noticed. The present Secretary being at the bead 

 of the United States Commission of Fisb and Fisberies, and tbe work 

 accomplisbed by this agency in increasing and dilfusing scientilic as well 

 as practical information being quite witbin tbe objects and province of 

 tbe Institution, mucb of tbe material would legitimately form a jjortion 

 of the Smitbsonian Contributions or Miscellaneous Collections. Tbeso 

 reports are, bowever, published by tbe government, and are distributed 

 by Congress. 



Four volumes of this series have been pubUsbed, each being of octavo 

 size and comprising about 1,000 images. Tbe last of these reports, pub- 

 lished in 1878, contains 1,089 pages, and embraces : (A) General con- 

 siderations on tbe ijrogress of operations ; (B) Iu<juiry into the decrease 

 of the food-fishes ; (C) The propagation of food fishes, as the shad, the 

 salmon, tbe white-fish, and the carp; (D) Tables showing the distribu- 

 tion of shad, salmon, &c., tbe places, dates, and quantities batched by 

 the United States Fish Commission from 1872 to 1870. The Appendix 

 contains a number of important i^apers, the most elaborate of which is a 

 history of the American whale fishery, by Capt. Alexander Starbuck. 

 This is followed by one on the an]} and its culture, by Rudolph Hessel. 



Smithsonian annual report. — Tbe Annual Report of tbe Institution for 

 1877 was transmitted to Congress on the Gth of February, 1878, and 

 10,500 extra copies of it were ordered to be printed, 1,000 for the use 

 of the Senate, 3,000 for the House of Representatives, and 0,500 for the 

 lastitution. It forms an octavo volume of 500 pages, with 49 wood-cut 

 illustrations. Tbe principal articles in the Appendix are a list of tbe 

 more important explorations and expeditions, tbe collections of which 

 have constituted the main sources of supply for the National Museum 

 from 1850 (and even earlier) to 1877; a translation of Holmgren's memoir 

 on color-blindness, in connection with which is reprinted an article on 

 tbe same subject by Professor Henry, published in 1845; translatious of 

 the reports of the transactions of the GeneA^a Society of Physics and 

 Xatural History lor 1875, 187G, and 1877, of Weisman's article on tbe 

 change of the Mexican Axolotl to an Ambly stoma, and of short memoirs 

 on meteorological subjects, by Hanu, Reye, Sohncke, Colding, and Pes- 

 lin ; notes on the history and climate of New Mexico, by Thomas Mc- 

 Parlin, and brief articles on ethnological topics, by C. Ran, George L. 

 Cannon, Tyloses Strong, J. X. de Hart, E. E. Breed, 'm. W. Moulton, Mrs. 

 Gilbert Knapp, W. H. R. Lykins, James Shaw, J. Cochrane, George AV. 

 Hill, H. B. Case, F. Miller, Joseph Friel, W. M. Clark, Charles C. Jones, 

 jr., W. B. F. Bailey, A. S. Gaiues, K. M. Cunningham, S. S. Haldemau, 

 A. ]\r. Harrison, S. P. Mayberry, William M. Taylor, Edwin M. Shepard, 

 George J. Gibbs, F. L. Gait, and Stephen Bowers. 



ANTHROPOLOGY. 



Ak in previous years, tbe subject of tbe anthropology of Xorth America 

 received special attentiou liom tlie Institution. Its earliest publica- 



