FORTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS, 1881-1883. 923 



TURNER'S AND NELSON'S REPORTS ON ALASKA. 



February 21, 1883 Senate. 



Joint resolution (S. 134) considered: 



Resolved, etc., That the Public Printer be, and he is hereby, authorized to print 

 and bind, for the use of the Signal Office, 2,000 copies of a report on the meteorology, 

 geography, botany, and zoology of Alaska, by Lucien M. Turner; also, 2,000 copies 

 of a report on the same subjects and on the ethnology of Alaska, by E. W. Nelson; 

 and 2,000 copies of a report of observations on Mount Whitney relative to the absorp- 

 tion of the sun's heat by the earth's atmosphere, by Processor Langley; and he is 

 also authorized to contract for the illustrations. 



Debated at length. 



* 



Mr. JOSEPH R. HAWLET. Reference was njpde by the Senator from 

 Kansas to a resolution referred to the Committee on Printing for the 

 publication of certain reports upon entomology, etc., of Alaska, as if 

 (one was compelled to infer from his remarks) an officer salaried by 

 the Government had been detailed from his natural duties in the Sig- 

 nal Corps to go to Alaska to make these inquiries. Now, these are 

 the very simple facts: The Smithsonian Institution inquired whether 

 at a signal station in Alaska there were not men qualified to make 

 some of these inquiries, or they may have been sent there upon ordi- 

 nary duty; they were privates in the Corps; and it was at the request 

 and suggestion of the Smithsonian Institution that these young men 

 wrote these treatises and did this work. 



Whether those things should be printed or not is a matter for the 

 Smithsonian Institution to judge. It had better take them and print 

 them as part of its own work. If it is part of its own work it is not part 

 of the Signal Service business either to collect that kind of informa- 

 tion or print it; but inasmuch as the duties of the private at stations 

 require him only a portion of the day, and require exact, faithful, 

 perfect performance of his duty at that time and full reports upon it 

 afterwards, there is no harm whatever, but on the contrary good, if 

 this young man has a taste for some of the natural sciences, in having 

 him record his observations at the same time. There was no neglect 

 of duty, and there was no special detachment, as I have been informed, 

 for this matter came before the Printing Committee sometime ago, 

 and I have heard about it at different times. There was no neglect of 

 dutv and no special detachment in the performance of the service. 

 ****** 



Mr. PRESTON B. PLUMB. If I wanted to make an adverse criticism 

 on this Corps I would take the Senator's from Connecticut and not 

 my own, because this information having been obtained entirely apart 

 from their Signal Service duty it becomes necessary to have a lot of it 

 printed for the use of the Signal Corps. 



Mr. HAWLEY. I do not think it was. My opinion is that resolution 



