REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. O 



The following are the titles of the articles of the octavo series that have 

 been printed during the year, or are now in press : 



1. Land and Fresh Water Shells of North America. Part I. By W. 

 G. Binney and T. Bland. 



2. Photographic Portraits of North American Indians in the Gallery 

 of the Smithsonian Institution. 



3. List of Foreign Correspondents of the Smithsonian Institution. 

 New and enlarged edition. 



4. Directions for Collecting, Preserving and Transporting Specimens 

 of Natural History. Prepared for the use of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion. (New edition.) 



5. Tables, Meteorological and Physical, prepared for the Smithsonian 

 Institution. By A. Guyot, P. D., LL. D. (New edition.) 



6. Circular in Eeference to the Degrees of Belationship among Differ- 

 ent Nations. (New edition.) 



At the request of tine Institution the preparation of the Manual of the 

 Land and Fresh Water Shells of North America was undertaken by W. 

 G. Binney. The second and third parts of this work were published 

 some years ago, and have been described in previous reports. The 

 first part, which completes the work, was issued during the year 

 1869, and forms by itself a volume of 328 pages, illustrated with many 

 woodcuts. The work was at first undertaken by Mr. Binney alone, but 

 he afterward, in this part, associated with himself Mr. Thomas Bland, of 

 New York. It contains a description of all the species of land shells 

 known in January 1868, within the geographical limits of North Amer- 

 ica, from the extreme North to the Bio Grande and Mazatlan. It is con- 

 sidered a valuable contribution to the study of conchology and is in. 

 great demand among those interested in the pursuit of this branch of 

 natural history. 



From the stereotype plates of these octavo works, from which impres- 

 sions have been printed and separately distributed in pamphlet form, two 

 additional volumes of the Miscellaneous Collections have been made up, 

 and are nearly ready for distribution. 



On account of the great outlay for the building during the last few 

 years, the appropriations for publications have been restricted ; yet from 

 the foregoing it will be seen that we shall be able to distribute in our 

 next foreign invoice one quarto and two octavo volumes, which, with 

 the Annual Beport, will make four volumes of publications issued dur- 

 ing 1869. 



A brief account has been given in previous reports of the contents of 

 all the papers forming the 16th volume of Contributions, excepting the 

 Gliddon Mummy Case, the Indians of Cape Flattery, and the Trans- 

 atlantic Longitude. 



The first of these is by Dr. Charles Pickering, of Boston, one of the 

 ethnologists of the United States Exploring Expedition, under Admiral 

 Wilkes. It relates to an interesting specimen of Egyptian archaeology 



