REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 69 



of the year Mr. Marcus W. Lyon, jr.. was in Venezuela with Lieut. 

 Wirt Robinson, U. S. A., having- been detailed to make collections of 

 the higher vertebrates. Mr. Barton A. Bean was in the Vineyard 

 Sound region of Massachusetts during part of the summer of 1899 

 in the interest of the Division of Fishes. 



During the summer of 1899 Mr. Charles Schuchert accompanied an 

 expedition under the auspices of the Union Pacific Railroad Companj' 

 to the fossil })eds of Wyoming, where he obtained many Jurassic 

 invertebrate fossils, the fenuir of a large Dinosaur, and a large nunil)er 

 of lithological and mineralogical specimens. In company with Prof. 

 Lester F. Ward, he also collected an interesting series of fossil cycads 

 in the same State. 



On the expedition to Alaska during June and Jul}-, 1899, so elabo- 

 rately equipped and carried out at the expense of Mr. E. H. Harriman, 

 of New York, the National Museum was represented l)v Mr. William 

 H. Dall, Mr. Robert Ridgway, Dr. C. Hart Merriam, and Mr. F. V. 

 Coville. The birds, insects, mollusks. and plants obtained have })een 

 transferred to the Museum, the plants coming through the Department 

 of Agriculture, while the insects, collected by Mr. Trevor Kincaid, of 

 Seattle, AA'ash., were presented by Mr. Harriman. Before returning 

 to Washington Mr. Dall visited the Hawaiian Islands, where he made 

 an important collection of mollusks. 



The Government explorations which contribute most constantly and 

 extensively to the Museum are those conducted l)v the Geological 

 Survey, the Fish Commission, and the scientitic Inireaus of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, in all of which there was nuich activity during 

 the past year. The cruise of the Fish Commission steamer Alhatroxs 

 to the South Pacitic Ocean offered an opportunity for securing ethno- 

 logical ol)jects from man}' interesting islands, and through the courtes}' 

 of the Commissioner of Fisheries two of the naturalists attached to the 

 expedition, Mr. C. H. Townsend and Mr. H. F. Moore, were author- 

 ized to collect in this field. They were successful in obtaining much 

 valual)le material. Explorations under the Department of Agriculture 

 have b«>en illustrated by extensive collections of plants made in Alaska 

 by Mr. F. V. Coville and Mr. T. H. Kearney, and in Virginia and 

 North Carolina by Mr. Kearney, and by an interesting collection of 

 insects gathered in Porto Rico by Mr. August Busck, and of crusta- 

 ceans obtained in Texas and Mexico by Messrs. Vernon Bailey, E. W. 

 Nelson, and B. A. (Toldman. Several important accessions have also 

 been received as the result of the field work of the Geological Sui'vey. 

 Interest in the needs of the Museum has been aroused among othcers 

 of the Army and Navy and observers of the Weather Bureau stationed 

 in the West Indies and the South Pacific Ocean, and it is expected that 

 valuable contributions will soon ])e received through these chamiels. 

 A collection of reptiles, which \\o made in Texas, has been presented bv 

 Dr. E. A. Mearns, U. S. A. 



