54 EEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



by Mr. W. W. Evans; fislios and reptiles from the Amazon, by Dr. 

 Kuth, IT. S. iST,, of the United States steamer Enterprise. 



From Mexico valuable specimens have been received from Professor 

 Duges, consisting especially of ummmals, birds, reptiles, and fishes; 

 illustrations of the ethnology and zoology of CTuateraala have been fur- 

 nished by Dr. Flint and United States Minister Williamson. 



Of the animals of Surinam, collections were sent by Dr. Hering; of the 

 vertebrata of Costa Eica, generally in a large variety, by Mr. J. Zele- 

 don ; of the tishes of Cuba, by Professor Poey ; general collections from 

 various islands of the West Indies, by Mr. Ober; fishes of Bermuda, by 

 the Wesleyan University, of Middletown, collected by Mr. Goode ; fishes 

 and archipological remains from Japan, by Prof. E. S. Morse; the fishes 

 of France and the Mediterranean, by the Museum of iSTatural History, 

 Paris ; of Northern Siberia, by Dr. Finsch, of Bremen ; skins, skulls, 

 and heads of the mammals of India, by the Public Library of Kurra- 

 chee. 



Mineralogy. — In the department of mineralogy and geology, as usual, 

 additions of many specimens, including several large collections, have 

 been received, as it has now become quite a common thing for people 

 all over the United States to send samples by mail or otherwise to the 

 Institution for determination. 



Many valuable additions have been made by the officers of the Land 

 Department of the Interior, especially by Mr. John Wasson, surveyor- 

 general of Arizona, and Mr. Hardenberg, the surveyor-general of Cali- 

 fornia. By far the most noteworthy and important addition in this line, 

 has been that of the greater part of the Swedish exhibit of iron, steel, 

 and other metals, made at Philadelphia in 187G. The valuable iron 

 and steel exhibit by the Swedish Commission at the Centennial Ex- 

 position had in part been promised to the American Institute of Min- 

 ing Engineers, and at its solicitation any effort on the part of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution to secure the remainder for the government was 

 waived in its behalf. It apjiears, however, that the necessary arrange- 

 ments for their acquiring this collection were not completed, and during 

 the year 1878, Dr. Joshua Lindahl, the representative of Sweden in con- 

 nection with the Permanent Exhibition, offered the remainder of the col- 

 lection as it stood, to the National Museum. This proposition was, of 

 course, very gladly accepted, and the collection was duly transmitted 

 under the direction of Mr. Thomas Donaldson, including the greater part 

 of the display of the Iron and Steel jNIiuing Company of Motala, and the 

 iron and steel of Sandvik, a well-known and conspicuous Swedish estab- 

 lishment. 



The institution received also, on special deposit, through the aid of 

 Dr. Lindahl, the immense mass of native iron, weighing five tons, the 

 smallest of three nuggets brought from the island of Disco by the Swed- 

 ish Government, the one referred to having been i^resentedto Professor 

 Nordenskjold, who had charge of the transfer, and by him sent for exhi- 



