Zoology 7 1 7 



Smithsonian Institution in the collection of specimens, and 

 also published reports or memoirs on representatives of the 

 existing fauna. Eventually, however, all were superseded by 

 a new United States Geological Survey created by a law 

 approved March 3, 1879. 



MUSEUM 



WHEN the Smithsonian Institution finally became established 

 it began to occupy a place that had been previously vacant. 

 In Washington there was practically no museum. The nu- 

 cleus of one was existent in the collections obtained by the 

 United States Exploring Expedition during the years 1838 

 to 1842, under Commodore Wilkes, but that at first was 

 under no competent supervision. Excellent collections had 

 been made by the naturalists attached to that expedition, 

 and representatives of several classes had been placed in the 

 hands of well-known specialists. The mammals and birds 

 were referred to Titian R. Peale and John Cassin, the rep- 

 tiles and amphibians to Spencer F. Baird and Charles Gi- 

 rard, the fishes to Louis Agassiz, the classes of mollusks to 

 Augustus A. Gould, and the crustaceans and zoophytes to* 

 James D. Dana. All of these, except Professor Agassiz, 

 made elaborate reports on the specimens intrusted to them, 

 and the collections, which were returned, thus became a very 

 considerable and more than ordinarily valuable basis for a 

 museum, inasmuch as a very large proportion of the species 

 collected and described were new, and thus types. The 

 American naturalists anticipated in many cases the results 

 of the contemporaneous British expeditions. 



But although special provision was made, in the law pro- 

 viding for the establishment of the Smithsonian Institution, 

 for the transfer to the new institution of all of what may be 

 46* 



