REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 63 



5. The Amazon expedition under Lieutenants Herndon and Gibbon. 



It will thus be seen, that of thirty government explorations, the 

 collections of five-sixtlis or twenty-four, are now deposited with the 

 Smithsonian Institution; the remaining ones, one-sixth in number, 

 are still in the Patent Office, though not all on exhibition. The same 

 proportion as above will pretty nearly indicate the comparative mag- 

 nitude of the collections in the two buildings. The disproportion in 

 favor ot the Smithsonian collections will be still greater if we except 

 the extensive series of implements, utensils, clothing, and fabrics^ 

 generally of the Pacific islands, as collected by Captain Wilkes. 

 To realize the difference between the two collections, it must be un- 

 derstood that at the present time all the Smithsonian collections are 

 packed away in the smallest possible compass, very few specimens 

 mounted, the alcoholic collections crowded closely together in five or 

 six different rooms; the shells, minerals, fossils, &c,, necessarily- 

 boxed up and stowed away in basement rooms. 



E. — Alphabetical Index of Additions to the Museum of the Smithsonian 

 Institution during the year 1856. 



Professo?' Agassiz. — Three specimens Emys serrata i'rom. Charleston,, 

 South Carolina ; E. belli, E. troostii, and E. elegans from Osage river ; 

 E. mobilensis from Mobile. 



Lieutenant Anderson. — One Bryophis, two Istiophorus, and ten skins- 

 of birds from Grey town, Nicaragua. 



Dr. Antisell. — Two boxes fossils and minerals from California', 

 skeleton of rattlesnake and spermophile ; skin of toad from the Gila 

 river ; Hermit crab from Matagorda, Texas. 



Charles Ashmead. — Salamandra tigrina from Beesley's Point, New 

 Jersey. 



E. G. Atkinson. — Skin of spotted buffalo calf from Fort Pierre. 



Captain N. Ativood. — Three fresh specimens of Euryale from Cape 

 Cod. 



S. F. Baird. — Jbishes in alcohol ; skeletons and jaws of fishes ; 

 small mammals from Beesley's Point, New Jersey, and Carlisle, 

 Pennsylvania. 



M. Baker. — Skins of fisher or black cat (3Iustela canadensis) and 

 weasel;, skulls of bear, deer, minks, otter, fisher, and martin, from 

 Essex county, New York. 



Er. Baldwin. — Bottle insects, living Testudo pohjphemus or gopher 

 and Geomys p)inetis or salamander, from Jacksonville, Florida. 



J. G. Bell. — Box with two rabbits {Lepus sylvaticus) from Wis- 

 consin. 



C. Bellman. — Mollusca from Biloxi, Mississippi. 



Dr. J. H. Benton and W. E. Guest. — Lucioperca, with tumor on 

 head. 



Dr. George B. Bibb. — Blind fish and Crustacea from the Mammoth 

 Cave, Kentucky. 



Dr. E. C. Bidioell. — Skins of birds and mammals, fossils, and 

 shells, from Iowa. 



