12 



In the department of Botany much is expected from the exam- 

 inations made during the past season by Sir JOSEPH D. HOOKER, 

 the accomplished Director of the celebrated Kew Gardens, and 

 Professor ASA GRAY, of Harvard University, having in charge the 

 Government Botanical Survey of the Territories of Colorado, Wy- 

 oming, Utah, Nevada and California. The brief and fragmentary 

 statements which have come to us of their work and some of the 

 results, lead the world to look with interest for the forthcoming full 

 report. 



In connection with the various surveys which have been alluded 

 to, Zoological Science has been represented by men of known attain- 

 ments in its several departments. It has devolved upon them to 

 collect specimens, and study the habits of every form of animal life. 

 From these sources a vast amount of information has been secured, 

 and extensive additions have been made to the collections in the 

 various museums of natural history in this country. In Marine 

 Zoology, through the efforts of Prof. BAIRD, of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, who also occupies the important position at the head of 

 the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries, large collec- 

 tions have been made, from which duplicates, by gift and exchange, 

 have been generously distributed to kindred organizations. It is 

 fitting that, on this occasion, mention be made of the obligations 

 our Academy is under to the Smithsonian, for its long-continued 

 liberality towards us. 



I cannot omit mention of the great advance in Geographical 

 Science during the past year. Without time to enumerate the 

 Arctic expeditions dispatched from Europe and this country, I 

 must be content with briefly noticing the grand event of the year, 

 the successful exploration by STANLEY of the river Congo, from the 

 lake region of eastern Africa, through twenty degrees of longitude 

 to the Atlantic. Worn by sickness and famine, harassed by des- 

 perate fighting with hostile natives, with indomitable courage and 

 endurance he made his way through the five or six thousand miles 

 of the river's course, and his year's work was complete; a high- 

 way was opened through a continent, a highway for commerce, 

 for civilization, for Christianity ! Another has said, " Imagine the 

 whole descent of Niagara and the rapids below down to Lake 

 Ontario, to be doubled, and spread through a space of two hundred 



