22 THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



Under these provisions, tlie Institution has received and taken charge of such 

 government collections in mineralogy, geology, and natural history as have been 

 made since its organization. The amount of these has been very great, as all the 

 United States Geological, Boundary and Railroad Surveys, with the various topo- 

 graphical, military, and naval explorations, have been, to a greater or less extent, 

 ordered to make such collections as would illustrate the physical and natural his- 

 tory features of the regions traversed. 



Of the collections made by thirty government expeditions, those of twenty-five 

 are now deposited with the Smithsonian Institution, embracing more than five- 

 sixths of the whole amount of materials collected. The principal expeditions thus 

 furnishing collections are the United States Geological Surveys of Doctors Owen, 

 Jackson, and Evans, and of Messrs. Foster and Whitney ; the United States and 

 Mexican Boundary Survey ; the Pacific Railroad Survey ; the Exploration of the 

 Yellow Stone, by Lieutenant Warren ; the Survey of Lieutenant Bryan ; the 

 United States Naval Astronomical Expedition ; the North Pacific Behring Straits 

 Expedition ; the Japan Expedition, and the Paraguay Expedition. 



The Institution has also received, from other sources, collections of greater or 

 less extent, from various portions of North America, tending to complete the 

 government series. 



The collections thus made, taken as a whole, constitute the largest and best* 

 series of the minerals, fossils, rocks, animals, and plants of the entire continent 

 of North America, in the world. Many tons of geological and mineralogical 

 specimens, illustrating the surveys throughout the West, are embraced therein. 

 There is also a very large collection of minerals of the mining regions of Northern 

 Mexico, and of New Mexico, made by a practical Mexican geologist, during a period 

 of twenty-five years, and furnishing indications of many rich mining localities 

 within our own borders, yet unknown to the American people. 



It includes, also, with scarcely an exception, all the vertebrate animals of North 

 America, among them many specimens each of the Grizzly, Cinniman, and Black 

 Bears ; the Panther, Jaguar, Ocelot, and several species of Lynx or Wildcat ; 

 the Elk, the Mexican, Virginian, White-tailed, Black-tailed, and Mule Deer; the 

 Antelope, Rocky Mountain Goat and Sheep; several species of Wolves and 

 Foxes, the Badger, Beaver, Porcupine, Prairie Dog, Gopher, and also about seven 

 hundred species of American Birds, four hundred of Reptiles, and eight hundred 

 of Fishes, embracing Salmon, Trout, Pike, Pickerel, White Fish, Muskalonge, 

 Bass, Redfish, &c. 



The greater part of the Mammalia have been arranged in walnut drawers, 

 made proof against dust and insects. The birds have been similarly treated, 

 hile the reptiles and fish have been classified, as, to some extent, have also been 

 the shells, minerals, fossils, and plants. 



The Museum hall is quite large enough to contain all the collections hitherto 

 made, as well as such others as may be assigned to it. No single room in the 

 country is, perhaps, equal to it in capacity or adaptation for its purposes, as, by 

 the arrangements now being perfected, and denoted in the illustration, it is capa- 



