REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 33 



The westernmost portion of the chain of the Aleutian Islands was 

 thoroughly explored during the year by Mr. William H. Dall, while 

 engaged in making a survey of the islands in behalf of the United 

 States Coast Survey, his leisure time having been employed in securing 

 a wonderfully complete series of specimens for the National Museum. 

 These covered all departments of natural history, such as various 

 mammals, birds and their eggs, insects and plauts, and more es- 

 pecially marine invertebrates, of which it is believed that many new 

 species have been obtained. A very prominent feature, however, in Mr. 

 Dall's collections, consists in the extensive series of pre-historic objects 

 obtained by the exploration of certain burial caves in Unalaska, which 

 throw much light upon- the past relationships of the Aleutians. Includ- 

 ing the ethnological collections made by Mr. Dall during previous years, 

 it is believed that no better illustration of the anthropology of that part 

 of Alaska could be brought together than is now within the walls of the 

 Institution. 



A collection of carvings made by the Haidah Indians, of Queen Char- 

 lotte's Island, a tribe remarkable for their skill in this branch of art and 

 for the variety and grotesqueness of their designs, has been received 

 from Mr. J. G. Swan, whose contributions also embrace numerous ethno- 

 logical and other specimens from Washington Territory, and is accom- 

 panied by a memoir, previously noticed in this report. 



From Oregon we have a very remarkable collection of prehistoric 

 remains, many of them of exquisite beauty of workmanship, consisting 

 of arrow-points and pestles, bone-carvings, &c, presented by Mr. Paul 

 E. Schumacher, of the United States Coast Survey. 



Another valued addition from this part of the country consists of a 

 number of specimens of the showt'l, both in skins and entire in alcohol, 

 furnished by Mr. S. C. Wingard, the United States district attorney at 

 Olympia. This mammal, the Aplodontia leporina, is like a muskrat, but 

 with a very short tail, and although abundant in a very limited 

 locality, is still little known to naturalists j while its peculiarities of 

 form render it of great interest as an object of study. After many years 

 of special effort directed toward securing a supply of these animals for 

 the purpose of meeting some urgent calls, the object was finally accom- 

 plished by the aid of Mr. Wingard. 



The coast of California has been well represented by the collections 

 of Captain C. M. Scammon, of the United States Eevenue Marine. This 

 gentleman, an active and efficient officer of the service, has, in the inter- 

 est of science, made use of the opportunities furnished by the necessary 

 cruises along the coast, devoting himself especially to a careful scien- 

 tific and practical study of the marine mammals, including the whales, 

 porpoises, seals, sea-otters, &c. With commendable enterprise, he has 

 commenced the publication, in California, of a large work on this sub- 

 ject, which, with its well-executed illustrations, promises to be a complete 

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