52 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



gratuitous services to the Fisli Commission and to the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution is not easily to be overestimated. 



With the assistance of the extensive and powerful apparatus on board 

 the Speedwell vast numbers of specimens of all kinds were secured, ap- 

 propriately assorted, and packed by the gentlemen referred to, and are 

 now in charge of Professor Yerrill at Kew Haven undergoing the neces- 

 sary examination for their arrangement and identification. A great 

 number of duplicates was obtaiTied for tbe purpose of supplying sets to 

 educational and scientific institutions throughout the country. 



A collection of fossiliferous rocks, brought up from time to time by 

 the trawls from the various banks of the New England coast, and found 

 in the possession of various citizens of Gloucester, by Mr. Warren J. 

 Upham, while connected with the Commission, revealed, under the crit- 

 ical labors of Professor Verrill, Mr. Smith, and himself, the existence of 

 a submarine formation quite different from any now known on the land, 

 and embracing a number of new species, and others in peculiar combi- 

 nations. The idea has been suggested by Professor Verrill that at some 

 earlier day the whole or the greater part of the interval between North 

 America and Europe, exteuding possibl}^ as far north as Iceland, was 

 occupied by a continent, which, after a certain amount of erosion and 

 excavation, was submerged, the plateaus or highest remaining portions 

 constituting a portion of the banks, which furnish such rich harvests. 

 The indications of this deposit are believed to be found at Gay Head on 

 Martha's Vineyard, and possibly at Siasconset in Nantucket, in the 

 Georges, at Le Have and Quero Banks, the Grand Banks, Flemish 

 Cap, &c. Of course so im})ortant a generalization Avill require further 

 determinations, and it is hoped that the labors of the Fish Commission 

 during the coming year may tend to solve the problem. 



In the collections made by the several methods, and from the several 

 sources referred to, are to be found all the orders and classes of marine 

 invertebrata, such as radiates, mollusks, worms, Crustacea, &c. 



Apart from the collections of shells and of invertebrates referred to, 

 we may mention a valuable (collection of shells of Florida, presented by 

 the Chicago Academy of Sciences, and of those of the German seas, by 

 Professor M()bius. 



Of terrestrial fossil remains from the land no important additions have 

 been made. Among those received, however, there is an interesting 

 and valuable collection of species from California, presented by Hon. A. 

 A. Sargent, United States Senator from that State, and a Eegent of the 

 Smithsonian Institution. 



Eeference has been made to the arrangement with the Dei)artment 

 of Agri(Milture, by which that establishment receives all the collec- 

 tions of land articidates; and a similar arrangement has been made in 

 regard to the plants, special efforts in regard to that branch of natural 

 history being left to the department. All the specimens offered spon- 

 taneously or collected by government expeditions have been turned over 



