120 



PROCE'EDINGS OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS. 

 Scale of com-parison. 



Scale. 



Denary 



Senidenary. 

 Octonary . . . 

 Quarternary 

 Binary 



Expression for 



the present 



year. 



1. 867 ■ 



.743 



3.513 



131.023 



Jl. 101.001.011 



Or to compare them in the expression of very large values, as for example, of 

 sucli a sum as the numlier of grains of sand required to constitute a globe as 

 large as our earth, (which, assmning 10 millions of grains to the cubic inch, 

 would not exceed G59 qnintillions, an expression requiring 33 places of ligurcs,) 

 we should find that the senidenary scale would require 28 figm-es, (a reduction 

 quite inf^ignilicant,) the octonar}'- would require 37 figures, (an excess equally 

 iiKsigniPicant, with only half the number of digits, and probaldy not one-fourth 

 the difficulty,) the quarternary 55 figures, and the binary 110 figures. 



In conclusion, I would express the opinion that the arithmetical scale suggested 

 by your correspondent does not promise a convenience which would justify the 

 subversion of the existing system of enumeration in its favor. 



From Count dc Lulk, President of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.' 



St. Peteksbxtkg, Maij 13, 1867. 



Having received, through the kind attention of his excellency General Clay, 

 the letter which you did me the honor to address to me under date of the 25th 

 of March last, fi'om the city of Washington, I lost no time in communicating its 

 purport to the Imperial Academy of Sciences. That body has accepted, with 

 the most lively acknowledgments, the offer which you make, in the name of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, to enrich the museums of the academy with the gift of 

 duplicates of the objects of natural history, collected in the Ilussian possessions 

 in America, as well as of those which M. Bischoff" shall have an opportunity of 

 collecting in Kamtschatka and the province of the Amour. 



At the same time I deemed it my duty to address to General Korsakoff, gov- 

 ernor general of Sil)eria, a reijuest that he would have the goodness to give such 

 orders that M. Bischoff shall liud, during the expedition which he contemplates, 

 assistance and protecti(jn on the part of the local authorities. By an official 

 despatch of the 25th of April, M. Korsakoff informs me that he has written on this 

 subject to the governors of the provinces which M. Bischoff has the intention of 

 visiting, and has, at the same time, conveyed to me an open order (in the Russian 

 language) which it will be proper that M. Bischoff shall carry with him and pro- 

 duce to the local authorities in case of need, that he ma}' secure their protection 

 and assistance, be enabled to procure from the magazines of the state provisions 

 at the legal rates, and be received on l)oard the vessels of the empire. This docu- 

 ment I have the honor of transmitting with the present communication, and beg, 

 sir, that you will accept the assurance of my most distinguished consideration. 



