REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 29 



Mr. George C. Maynard, Custodian of the Electrical Collections, has also been 

 designated Aid in the Division of Technology. 



Dr. A. C. Peale was appointed Aid in the Section of Paleobotany on July 25, 1898. 



Explorations. — The explorations which have been carried on during the year have 

 been conducted for the most part by curators of the Museum and other members of 

 its etaff. So far very little has been done toward making systematic collections in 

 the territory recently brought under the control of the United States. (Congress 

 was asked for a specific appropriation which would enable the Institution to carry 

 on work in this direction, but no funds were provided.) 



The anthropological, explorations for the year have been fruitful of results. In 

 September, 1898, Mr. W. H. Holmes visited California in the interest of the Museum 

 and secured valuable collections illustrating both the ethnology and archaeology of 

 that State. From the auriferous gravel region of Nevada, and from Calaveras and 

 Tuolumne counties, California, many stone implements, supposed to have a bearing 

 upon the occupation of those areas by Tertiary man, were secured. The ancient soap- 

 stone quarries on Santa Catalina Island were visited, and explorations were made in 

 two prehistoric burial places. . From the latter a number of relics were obtained. 

 The most extensive collections made by Mr. Holmes represent the basketry, imple- 

 ments, etc. , of the Pomo, Digger, and Tulare Indians. 



In April, 1899, Mr. Holmes spent a month in Mexico, securing important collec- 

 tions from the ancient Aztec obsidian mines of the State of Hidalgo, besides various 

 relics from the ancient cities of San Juan, Teotihuacan, and Xochicalco. 



In September, 1898, Mr. Paul Beckwith, representing the Division of History, was 

 sent to Cuba and Puerto Rico for the jiurpose of collecting for the Museum, especial 

 attention being given to gathering relics illustrating the war with Spain. Many 

 valuable objects were secured, and agencies were set at work, calculated to add 

 greatly to this interesting series of exhibits. 



Mr. J. B. Hatcher, who has been carrying on extensive explorations in Patagonia 

 for Princeton University, has forwarded to the National Museum one valuable lot of 

 ethnological specimens, and important additions are expected at an early date. 



Early in May, 1899, Dr. Walter Hough was detailed to carry on ethno-botanical 

 researches in Mexico, in connection with the explorations of the Division of Botany, 

 in charge of Dr. J. N. Rose. 



Among the explorations yielding important results to the Department of Biology, 

 those conducted by the naturalists of the U. S. Fish Commission and by Mr. A. B. 

 Baker, in Puerto Rico and vicinity, are worthy of particular mention. Of mollusks 

 the Museum received some 5,000 specimens, representing about 400 species, many of 

 them rare or undescribed. Large series of other marine and fresh-water inverte- 

 brates, about 180 birds, 200 specmiens of reptiles and batrachians, and 200 bats were 

 collected. A large and important series of mammals from Sweden, Germany, 

 Switzerland, and Belgium was obtained for, and under the direction of, the Museum 

 by Mr. J. A. Loring, of Owego, New York. Mr. Dallde Weese visited Alaska during 

 the summer of 1898 and special arrangements were made with him for procuring 

 large mammals for the Museum. He secured several specimens of the Alaskan moose, 

 and a large number of the wild white sheep of that Territory. Dr. E. A. Mearns, 

 U. S. A., made collections of birds' skins in Texas. 



The Division of Marine Invertebrates has been enriched by material collected by 

 Dr. T. H. Bean and Mr. B. A. Bean on Long Island; by Miss Mary J. Rathbun, at 

 Grand Manan, New Brunswick; by Messrs. William Palmer and Paul Bartsch, in the 

 Dismal Swamp, Virginia, by Mr. Harold Heath in Monterey Bay, California, and by 

 the Biological Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York. As the result of explora- 

 tions in the North Pacific, Alaska, Kamchatka, Lake Superior, and Florida, collectioiis 

 of fishes were transferred to the Museum by the Fish Commission. 



