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contracted on the Amazonas, I sent him to SSo Paulo 

 where he made, especially in the Sorocaba district, a valu- 

 able series of observations confirmatory of, and additional 

 to, those of Mr. Rathbun. This last assistant has pre- 

 pared an extended report of his excursion to Sao Paulo, 

 giving the first intelligible detailed account of the geol- 

 ogy of that province. He has finished his work on the 

 geology of Bahia, on the coral reefs of that bay, and has 

 concluded the corals and radiates collected by the Com- 

 mission, which he has illustrated by a splendid series of 

 photographs by his own hand, which is not equalled by 

 any similar work that I have ever seen. 1 have already 

 alluded to his studies of the Amazonian fossils. Mr. 

 Branner has been busily engaged in the preparation and 

 mounting of the Cretaceous fossils collected by Dr. 

 Freitas and himself, in the provinces of Sergipe and Per- 

 nambuco, and in the preparation of a series of reports 

 on the island of Fernando de Noronha, on the reefs of 

 the north coast, and on a journey made by him to the 

 interior of the province of Pernambuco, etc. 



" Mr. Carpenter has been engaged in the reduction of 

 the geographical observations of the various members 

 of the Commission, in the preparation of a new map of 

 the Lower Amazonas, in the revision of a paper on mete- 

 orology presented by Mr. Wagoner, and recently in the 

 preparation of a carefully considered expose of the 

 methods employed by the United States Government in 

 geographical surveying in the western territories and 

 states, — methods sufficiently accurate, and especially 

 adapted, for a new and unexplored country, and most 

 admirably adapted for a geological survey, where geo- 

 graphical and topographical work must to a certain 

 extent be subordinated to the needs of geological explo- 

 ration. Mr. Carpenter, after a severe training as a civil 

 engineer, was employed by Lieut. Wheeler on his sur- 

 vey, under the War Department, of the Western territo- 

 ries, and has had several years of practical experience 

 in the field. I have thought that, even if the Geological 

 Commission of Brazil should be definitely stopped, his 



