18 



In 1825-'6, when Gen. Rodil was besieged in the castles of Callao, and the 

 port was blockaded, the men-of-war that were there turned their attention, for the 

 want of a market on shore, to the reiiources of the harbor itself. H. B. M. ship 

 Briton resorted to the expedient of trolling the harbor for shell-fish, and discover- 

 ed banks of them. One of the greatest delicacies to be found now in the excel- 

 lent fish market of Lima are the Britones of Callao, (so called in honor of the 

 vessel.) Although the fishermen of Uallao and Lima had been almost in the 

 daily habit of fishing over these banks for two or three hundred years, it was not 

 known, ej^pt by a dead shell cast up here and there on the beach, that such a 

 shell-fish was to be found in the waters of Peru. This fact is mentioned to show 

 how little is known of the bottom of the sea, even at those points which are most 



frequented. 



If those vessels which use the troll could be induced to keep a record of their 

 labor, such records would, in the course of time, enable the Institution to construct 

 a chart of the coast, showing the unproductive from the fruitful and habitable parts 

 of the bottom of the ocean — a work which would have the merit of being both 

 useful and new. 



I have the honor to be, &c. 



M. F. MAURY, U. S. N. 



A letter to the American Philosophical Society of Philadel- 

 phia was read, announcing officially the existence of the Na- 

 tional Institution, and asking its correspondence ; and the re- 

 ply of the Society, accepting with pleasure the offered corre- 

 spondence, and stating that directions had heen issued to 

 furnish the Institution with the printed proceedings of the So- 

 ciety, and its future Volumes and Transactions. 



And a letter from J. W. Vandenbroek, Consul of the Uni- 

 ted States at Amsterdam, offering specimens of the Birds of 

 Holland, for the Cabinet of the Institution. 



Stated Meeting, January 1, 1841. 



Present, thirty-one members. 



Hon. Joel R. Poi.nsett in the Chair. 



The following donations were received : 

 Abridgment of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Lon- 

 don from 1665 to 1744, in 6 vols., 4to. — Frovi Thomas 

 Gilpin, Philadelphia. 



