iV INTRODUCTORY. 



follow the comprehensive harvests reaped by M. Claude Gay could be, at best, but gleaners. 

 The sjiecimens collected by him during several years of assiduous labor had been sent to Paris 

 for description and illustration ; and already several octavo volumes of letter-press, with many 

 superbly colored folio plates, had reached Santiago. Subsequently, the zoology and botany, 

 comprising 16 volumes of text and 224 plates, have been completed. Nevertheless, elaborate as 

 his work promised to be, and small as was the probability that we should be able to add any 

 mites to the stock of knowledge contributed by him, in the expectation that they would prove of 

 interest to the students who seek the National Cabinet at Washington, I lost no occasion to col- 

 lect specimens from every available quarter. In this, more than one friend, foreign as well as 

 native, aided me ; some contributing antiquities, and others rare ores, neither of which are cer- 

 tainly attainable except through such influence. To these generous friends, therefore, we are 

 under obligation for the esjjecially rare objects described both in the mineralogical and ethno- 

 logical reports. Nor did their considerate and kind liberality end with my residence in Chile ; 

 for more than a year after arriving at home, there reached me a fine specimen of that very 

 rare mammal — the Clilamyphorus truncatus — a fossil mastodon tooth, many birds of particular 

 interest, and several hundred minerals. 



Moreover, whenever opportunity offered during our three years' residence abroad, seeds and 

 bulbs, or thriving specimens of valuable or curious plants, were forwarded to the conservatory 

 at Washington ; and from there large numbers of useful varieties have already been distributed. 

 By authority from the lionorable Secretary of the Navy, all the other portions of the collection 

 were placed in charge of the Smithsonian Institution, with a request to distribute them among 

 naturalists for proper description, and drawings of every object not previously figured. Ample 

 funds were placed subject to the control of the Smithsonian Institution, and it alone is respon- 

 sible for the manner in which the Avork has been accomplished. The enviable reputations of the 

 gentlemen selected, is amjjle guaranty for the fidelity and ability with which their several tasks 

 were executed ; and it is hoped that the collection brought home by the Astronomical Expedi- 

 tion will not be without value to the naturalists of the United States. 



The "Anales de la Universidad de Chile," for June, 1854, reached me after the report on 

 minerals had been printed. It contains the first authentic account of the locality where the 

 great Atacama meteor exploded, with interesting details, which merit translation and publica- 

 tion here for the benefit of mineralogists who may never receive the " Anales." The recognised 

 ability of the author — Dr. E. A. Phili^jpi — is a sufiicient guaranty for the accuracy with which 

 he will make known every incident of his journey to that inhospitable region. 



J. M. G. 



U. S. N. Astronomical Expedition, 

 Washington, August, 1855. 



