16 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



Foreign Correspondents of the Institution was in press. This work, con- 

 taining all the later additions to the list, has been published, and is now 

 in use by the Institution and its correspondents. 



It was also stated that a List of the Scientific, Educational, and Liter- 

 ary Establishments in the United States was in press. This work, which 

 was prepared by Mr. W. J. Ehees, the chief clerk of the Institution, has 

 been published, and is of much service in the distribution of the publi- 

 cations of the Institution, as well as those of the different Departments 

 of Government, and of educational establishments, and will be of assist- 

 ance to members of Congress in the distribution of documents. It 

 includes 8,575 titles of societies, libraries, &c, as follows : 



Colleges, male and female, (so-called) 758 



Academies, normal and high-schools 2,850 



Law schools and libraries 53 



Medical schools and libraries 221 



Theological schools and libraries 127 



Observatories 23 



Scientific societies and libraries 94 



Agricultural societies g 1,082 



Libraries, general 2,692 



Asylums and hospitals 491 



Asylums for insane 65 



Asylums for deaf and dumb 38 



Asylums for blind 30 



Prisons having libraries 51 



For the purpose of forming a general hypsometrical map of the North 

 American continent and for collecting together, for permanent record 

 and publication, the data on which such a map should be based, letters 

 of request have been sent out in every direction likely to be available 

 for such information, while the printed reports of the various govern- 

 mental, military, and geological expeditions and of railroad and canal 

 surveys have been consulted and made to render tribute. The whole 

 of this work has been placed in charge of the topographer of the Post- 

 Office Department, Mr. Walter L. Nicholson, who reports in regard to 

 it as follows: 



" Contributions, in manuscript, have been received from 312 engineers 

 and other officers of railroad companies, furnishing a large body of valua- 

 ble facts, which, with the heights shown on upward of 70 graphic pro- 

 files collected, give upward of 16,000 points more or less accurately 

 determined, over the several States and Territories. 



But great labor and perplexity have arisen from the discrepancies 

 found to exist among many of the statements given, owing, chiefly, to 

 the various planes of reference used in the surveys, and to the iudefi- 

 niteness in their references ; and great difficulty has been experienced 



