EEPORT OF THE SECTvETARY. 63 



erally, spent several months in 1878 in a visit to Europe, especially to 

 the zoological museums and to the co-workers in his special department 

 of research in Northern Europe. Acting as an accredited agent of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, he was authorized to offer its services to special- 

 ists in prosecuting their researches, and to invite exchanges of books 

 and specimens. Many valuable alliances have been formed in conse- 

 quence of this visit, and the Institution has had already the pleasure of 

 supplying considerable material in response to calls for the same. 



Availing ourselves of a visit to France in 1878, by Mr. Thomas Don- 

 aldson, whose services to the Institution during the Centennial Exhibi- 

 tion had been of great value, that gentleman was requested to call on 

 Mons. de la Batut, who had presented the Institution with relics of James 

 Smithson, and procure from him all the information he could furnish rel- 

 ative to the founder of this Institution. Mr. de la Batut is the half- 

 brother of the nephew of Smithson, to whom the latter bequeathed his 

 property, and in case of whose death it was to be devoted to founding 

 the Smithsonian Institution. Mr. Donaldson lisited Mr. de la Batut, 

 and gathered from him a few facts of interest relative to Smithson, none 

 of which, however, were entirely new. He also procured the tbllowing 

 articles : 



1. An engraved portrait of Hugh Percy, Duke of Northumberland, 

 father of James Smithson and of Col. Henry Louis Dickinson. 



2. A portrait of Henry James Dickinson, son of Col. Henry Louis 

 Dickinson, the nephew and heir of Smithson. (Silhoutte i^roflle.) 



3. A paper in the handwriting of James Smithson, a copy of an article 

 by an admiral on the cause of a shipwreck in the English channel. 



4. An inventory of the personal effects of James Smithson at the x)eriod 

 of his death, made by the British consul at Genoa. 



5. An engraved visiting card bearing the inscription: "Henri de la 

 Batut, Hotel Britannique, rue Louis le Grand, 20." 



0. Copy in wax of the seal of the de la Batut family. 



In addition to its irreparable loss in the death of its late Secretary, 

 the Institution has also to lament that of a number of valued corre- 

 sponelents. Among those to be first mentioned is Mr, Donahl Gunn, of 

 Winnipeg, Manitoba, a veteran correspondent of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, one of the earliest of its meteorological observers, and one who 

 for more than twenty years has 1)een a constant contributor of informa- 

 tion and collections relating to the natural history of the Northwest. 



Mr. Gunn was a Scotchman by birth, and entered the service of the 

 Hudson's Bay Company in 1813 ; but in 1823 resigned and establLshed 

 himself in the Selkirk settlement in the Bed Eiver country, where he 

 was for a long time a successful instructor of youth, and ultimately 

 was appointed one of the judges of the court of petty sessions, holding 

 that position for more than twenty years. He was also a member of the 

 first legislative council of JManitoba, in 1871. 



As stated, the first connection of Mr. Gunn with the Smithsonian 



