30 EEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



bracing large numbers of new species of fossil mammals, reptiles, and 

 fishes, with other interesting objects. 



Mr. R. McFarlane, Mr. James Lockhart, and Mr. Straehan Jones, who 

 have been extremely liberal to the Institution in previous j'ears, have 

 again made important additions to its store of specimens, illustrative 

 of the natuial history of the region of the far northwest. 



In accordance with the understanding between the Institution and 

 the Medical Department of the Government, the specimens of human 

 crania obtained by us have been transferred to the Army Medical Mu- 

 seum, which has, in turn, sent to the Institution all other articles it 

 had received in ethnology and archeology. By this means a very 

 extensive and valuable series of specimens has been obtained by the 

 Institution during the past year. A full list of the additions thus made, 

 will be found in the appendix to the present report. 



Another collection worthy of special mention was presented to the Insti- 

 tution by the Colonial Museum, at Wellington, New Zealand. This 

 consisted of bones of the JDinornis, the skins and skeleton of the 

 Apteryx, skins of other birds, shells, and ethnological specimens of 

 the country, and was partly in return for a valuable series of books 

 presented by the Institution to the colonial government. 



The labors of Dr. Edw. Palmer, already well known in connection with 

 the ethnological museum of the Institution, have been continued during 

 the present year, and large numbers of articles of Indian manufacture, 

 both ancient amd modern, attest his zeal and success as a collector. A 

 more detailed report will be made upon these when the entire collection 

 is received. Lieutenant Eiug, of the Army, has continued his valuable 

 donations from Alaska, embracing specimens of animals as well as 

 Indian relics of great antiquity. From Captain C. M. Scammon, of 

 the United States revenue marine, we have received a number of speci- 

 mens and several important communications in reference to the seals and 

 whales of the Pacific coast. A memoir submitted by this gentleman 

 to the Institution has been published by the Philadelphia Academy of 

 Natural Sciences, and is considered an important contribution to the 

 knowledge of the subject already existing. Dr. G. M. Sternberg and 

 his brother, Mr. C. H. Sternberg, have transmitted extensive and val- 

 uable collections of the tertiary fossil plants of Kansas, and other objects 

 of interest. The former have been found, on examination by Mr. ]\reek, 

 to contain a number of new species, which will shortly be described. 



It will be remembered that an exploration of the Isthmus of Te- 

 huantepec, by Professor Sumichrast, has been in progress for some 

 years past, under the direction of the Institution, the expense of which 

 was defrayed in part by the Kentucky University at Lexington, by the 

 Boston Society of Natural History, and by the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences of Philadelphia. The labors of Professor Sumichrast were 

 brought to a close during the past summer, and several of the collabo- 

 rators of the Institution are now at work in investigating particular 



