JOURNAL OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 469 



TWENTY-EIKST MEETING. 



March 12, 1849. 



The Executive Committee met at the Vice-President's room this 

 day. 



Present, Mr. Seaton, (Chairman,) Mr. Marsh, (by invitation,) Mr. 

 Pearce, Professor Bache, and the Secretary. 



The minutes of the last meeting were read. 



The Secretary laid before the committee the certificates of United 

 States stock, obtained in exchange for Treasury notes, issued in the 

 name of the Chancellor and Secretary of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion, and their successors ; and requested direction in regard to the 

 safe-keeping of the same. It was concluded that the certificates 

 might be placed in the safe of the Secretary of the Senate. 



The certificates are as follows : Twenty-two notes, of ten thou- 

 sand dollars each ; and two notes, of three thousand dollars each ; 

 the numbers of which are, to wit : 708, 709, 710, 711, 712, 713, 714, 

 715, 716, 717, 718, 719, 720, 721, 722, 723, 724, 725, 726, 727, 728, 

 729, each of ten thousand dollars ; and 924 and 925, each of three 

 thousand dollars ; making a sum total, of $226,000. 



The Secretary was requested to present, at a meeting of the 

 committee to-morrow, a statement of the advances required for the 

 next quarter, in conformity with the appropriation of the Board of 

 Regents. 



Resolved, That Mr. Garrigue, who has heen authorized to purchase certain hooks 

 for the Smithsonian Institution, hy the Committee of the Library, be informed that 

 he may draw on the Chairman of the Executive Committee for five hundred dollars, 

 at ten day's sight, when the books are shipped. 



The Secretary reported that he had delivered to Messrs. Squier 

 and Davis the copies of the first volume of Contributions ordered 

 to be presented to them. 



The Secretary was instructed to make a compensation of fifty 

 dollars to Miss Maria Mitchell, for the paper presented by her to 

 the Smithsonian Institution on the " Telescopic Comet," discovered 

 by her in 1847. 



The Secretary informed the committee that the building, on ac- 

 count of unfavorable weather, had not yet been put into a state fit 

 for occupation. 



Also, that he has directed the publication of a map of the north- 

 ern stars, on which to record observations of the Aurora, and that, 

 in connection with this, he had issued a circular of instructions as 

 to the method of observing this meteor. 



That about two hundred persons had signified their willingness to 



