ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. , 5 
ReautakR Meeting, Fresrvary Ist, 1875. 
Second Vice-President in the Chair. 
Forty-five members present. 
The following new members were elected: 
Cornelius Herz, Horatio Stone, J. R. Scowden, Jeremiah Clark. 
Donations to the Museum: From I. C. Raymond, a valuable 
case and drawers. From J. ©. Merrill & Co., the spy-glass that 
originally belonged to Capt. Wm. Bligh, who commanded H. B. 
M. ship Bounty when taken by the mutineers, who afterwards 
settled Pitcairn Island. The glass was left at Tahiti, and came 
into the hands of _ Kamehameha III of the Hawaiian Islands, and 
was presented by Kamehameha V to Capt. Joseph Smith, who 
left it with Messrs. J. C. Merrill & Co., who present it to the 
Academy. They also donate a family Esquimaux boat or “oomiak;” 
also teeth of whale. Dr. H. Behr presented the web of the larvee 
of the Eucheira Socialis from New Mexico, found in about the 
same climate as California. It feeds on a species of arbutus, 
and could therefore be introduced if. desired. It forms a water- 
‘proof sac or bag into which it retires for shelter from rain or 
storms. This bag is remarkable for its exceeding delicacy and 
lightness. W. G. W. Harford presented several specimens of 
Crustacez from Santa Barbara, EHpicellus productus, Hippa analoga, 
and two other species. W. J. Fisher presented thirty specimens 
of Crustaceze from Japan, Behring’s Straits and Arctic Ocean. 
Several of these species are new, and none of them are in the 
cabinet of the Academy. 
T. J. Lowry, of the U. 8. Coast Survey, read the following: 
The Protracting Sextant—A New Instrument for Hydro- 
graphic Surveying. 
BY T. J. LOWRY. 
Sextants, and the three-arm protractor, are indispensable instruments, in 
hydrographic surveying. And in the special work of determining and plotting 
the position of the sounding-boat or vessel in the usual manner by the three- 
point problem, they ave the only instruments of precision in use; and yet the 
