32 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



inent in pursuance of an act of Congress, left the Uuited States in 

 the summer of 1871, and succeeded in reaching the latitude of 82° 

 10', the most northerly point ever attained by civilized man. Little 

 was done in the way of collections until after the expedition went 

 into winter-quarters in October, 1871 ; and most of the specimens 

 gathered were secured during that winter and the following spring and 

 summer. The death of Captain Hall interfered, of course, materially 

 with the scientific work, but did not interrupt it, and at the time of the 

 damage to the vessel by the ice, in October, 1872, very extensive col- 

 lections had been made under the direction of Dr. Bessels, the chief of 

 the scientific corps. These embraced specimens of the minerals, rocks, 

 and fossils of Polaris Bay and other localities, large numbers of skins 

 and skeletons of the musk-ox, (a great desideratum in public museums,) 

 and other species of mammals, such as lemmings, seals, &c. j some 

 birds and their eggs; many specimens of marine invertebrates, and a 

 complete collection of the insects and plants met with by the party. 

 Most of these collections were left on board the Polaris when the party 

 remaining with the vessel went into quarters on shore during the winter 

 of 3872-73; and when the vessel was found to be unseaworthy, and it 

 became necessary to build boats to move southward for the purpose of 

 trying to meet the English whalers, it was found impossible to bring away 

 more than a small number of the objects that had been gathered. Dr. 

 Bessels, however, in the limited amount of space allotted to him, suc- 

 ceeded in packing a representative series of the fossils and rocks, and 

 some specimens of insects, as also a few objects preserved in alcohol, all 

 of which at present occupy a special case in the mineral-room at the 

 west end of the Smithsonian building. 



The absence of fishes in the collections of the Polaris party is very 

 remarkable, no specimens of this class of vertebrates having been seen 

 by the expedition in the northern portion of their journey, with the ex- 

 ception of a few small fishes in a fresh- water stream, which could not 

 be caught, but were supposed to be young salmon. Cetaceans, too, 

 were equally absent, the marine mammals being represented only by 

 one or two species of seal. 



Proceeding southward, the next region from which interesting mate- 

 rial has been received during the year is that of the Pribylov or fur-seal 

 islands of Behriug Sea. Here the collections begun in 1872, on the 

 island of Saint Paul, by Mr. Henry W. Elliott, assistant United States 

 Treasury agent, were continued by him on the adjacent island of Saint 

 George, and embraced a complete representation of the birds, especially 

 the aquatic species and their eggs, the skeletons and skulls of the seals 

 and some marine invertebrates. These are accompanied by very inter- 

 esting sketches of the animal life of the island, especially of the seals 

 and walruses, adding much to our knowledge of the habits of this inter- 

 esting group of mammals. 



