REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 49, 
United States, Mexico, Central and South America, and the West: 
Indies, have been laid under contribution for facts and materials by- 
which to advance science. 
An eminently useful influence has been exerted by the Institution. 
through the aid it has afforded in the organization of the different. 
government explorations by land and by sea. Whether by official 
representations to the heads of departments, or personal influence: 
with officers and employés, it has secured the engagement of indi- 
viduals competent to collect facts and specimens; it has instructed 
persons thus engaged, and others, in the details of observation ; it 
has superintended the preparation, and, in some cases, borne the ex- 
pense of the necessary outfits ; has furnished fresh supplies from time 
to time to the collectors while in the field ; received the collections 
made, and preserved them for future study, or at once consigned 
them to the hands of competent persons, both at home and abroad, 
for investigation; directing the execution of the necessary drawings 
and engravings for the reports, and, finally, superintending the print- 
ing and even the distribution of any available copies of the completed 
works to institutions of science. Prior to the establishment of the 
Institution but little had been done by our government in the way of 
scientific explorations, with the exception of that under Captain 
Wilkes. But since then nearly every United States expedition, 
whether a survey for a Pacific railroad route, a boundary line between 
the United States and regions north or south of it, or within its 
borders, a wagon-road across the Rocky mountains, or an ordinary 
topographical exploration, has been influenced and aided more or 
less, as above stated.. A list of the expeditions has been, from time 
to time, published in the annual reports, and it is sufficient here to 
say that their total number up to the present time is about fifty. 
Besides these, similar explorations have been carried on without 
any reference to the government, and either entirely or in a great 
measure at the expense of the Institution, and always at its sugges~ 
tion, or under its direction. Prominent among these may be men- 
tioned the three years’ researches in the arctic regions, by Mr. Ken- 
nicott, with the co-operation of gentlemen of the Hudson’s Bay Com- 
pany; of Mr. Drexler, in the region of Hudson’s bay, and also in the- 
Rocky mountains ; of Mr. Coues, in Labrador ; of Lieutenant Feilner, 
in Nebraska and Northern California; of Mr. John Xantus, at Fort; 
Tejon, Cape St. Lucas, and in Western Mexico; of Lieutenant Trow- 
bridge, on the coast of California; of Drs. Cooper and Suekley, in 
Western America generally; of Drs. Coues and Beers, in Kansas, 
4s 
