REPORT 



OP THK 



COMMITTEE ON NAVAL AFFAIRS. 



March 21, 1836. Mr. SOUTHARD, from the Committee on N. Affairs, made the follow- 

 ing report: 



The Committee on Naval Affairs to whom was referred a memorial 

 from sundry citizens of Connecticut, interested in the whale-fishery 

 praying that an exploring expedition be fated out to the Pacific ocean 

 and South seas, report : 



THAT the subject of this memorial, in the opinion of your com- 

 mittee, merits immediate attention, and the exercise of an enlight- 

 ened liberality on the part of Congress. The whole of the facts 

 and reasoning upon which this opinion is founded, cannot be em- 

 braced within the ordinary limits of a report, and the committee, 

 therefore, content themselves in the discharge of their duty, by a 

 reference to a few historical facts, and an allusion to some of the 

 arguments which have satisfied their own minds that it is wise and 

 expedient to provide, by law, for an exploring expedition to the 

 Pacific ocean and South seas. 



Such an expedition has been an object of solicitude with a large 

 number of intelligent and enterprising citizens, for many years 

 past, and has been repeatedly urged upon the attention of Con- 

 gress by petitions and memorials from those whose interests were 

 most directly concerned by resolutions and other expressions of 

 opinion of legislative bodies and assemblies of citizens in several 

 of the states, and by reports from the Navy Department and mes- 

 sages from the Executive of the United States. 

 M 34 



