IS TENTH ANNUAL REPORT OP 



tions, from reliable information, were specially and scientifically brought 

 to bear upon this investigation, it seemed necessary to enlarge the 

 original plan, and to exhibit, concisely, the considerations involved 

 in the discussions, the course they had taken in this country, and the 

 conclusions to which different writers in these departments of research 

 had been led. 



The last chapter will present a sketch of what appears to be the 

 aetual information now possessed respecting the vestiges of anti- 

 quity in the United States, and will include the consideration of the 

 following points : 



1st. To what places of the American continent the known courses 

 of the winds and currents might casually bring the vessels of ancient 

 navigators. 



2d. The evidences of foreign communication saicl to be observable 

 at those places. 



3d. The other known means of access from foreign countries. 



4th. The topography of ancient remains in the United States, 



5th. The external character of those remains. 



6th. Their local peculiarities. 



7th. The character of the articles taken from them, and supposed to 

 be of contemporaneous origin. 



8th. The inscriptions, medals, and other remains, supposed to indi- 

 cate the use of letters or hieroglyphic symbols. 



This nauer. as usual, will be issued, at first, s^narately, and after- 

 wards published as a part of the eighth volume of Contributions. 



2. The jjaper mentioned in the last report, on the Tangencies of 

 Circles and Spheres, by Major Alvord, of the United States army, 

 has been printed, and is now ready for distribution. It is clue to 

 Professors Church and Gibbes, to whom the memoir was submitted, 

 to mention that they have given it critical examination, have sug- 

 gested several improvements, which have been adopted by the author, 

 and that, in his absence on official duty in Oregon, they have read 

 the proof-sheets, and corrected the plates and text — a service of no 

 small moment in the publication of an abstruse mathematical paper, 

 in which extreme precision, if not absolute accuracy of typography, is 

 required. 



3. The paper on the Aurora Borealis, by Professor Olmsted, de- 

 scribed in the last report, has also received some emendations, and 

 is now in the press. The valuable collection of notices of the appear- 

 ances of the aurora in northern latitudes, by Peter Force, Esq., of 

 Washington, is also in the hands of the printer, and will form an ap- 

 pendix to the eighth volume. 



4. A corrected edition of the first part of the tables for facilita- 

 ting the investigation of physical problems, mentioned in the fifth and 

 sixth reports, has been prepared, and, with the second part of the 

 sam» series, is now in the press. No publications of the Institution 

 have been called for more frequently than these tables. They have 

 been introduced into Great Britain, and have supplied a want which 

 has long been felt by the practical cultivator of physical science in 

 that country, as well as our own. 



Each set of tables has a distinct title and paging, and may be 



