50 REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 



Large collections in botany, mineralogy, and geology were also made, 

 but have not been received at the Institution. 



2. Exploration of the 3Iissouri %nd Yellowstone rivers, under Lieut. 

 G. K. Warren, United States army. — This expedition, accompanied 

 by Dr. F. V. Hayden as geologist and naturalist, left St. Louis in 

 April, and returned in November, having in the mean time explored 

 the whole Missouri, from Council Bluffs to a point eighty miles above 

 the mouth of the Yellowstone, and up the latter to the mouth of the 

 Powder river. Short as was the time actually occupied in the field — 

 scarcely six months — the party not only made the regular astronom- 

 ical and topographical observations, but also contributed in a high 

 degree to the advancement of natural science, by securing the largest 

 collection in natural history ever obtained by any one government ex- 

 pedition to the West. Some idea of the extent of these collections may 

 be formed from the fact that they embraced one hundred and fifty 

 mammals, six hundred birds, (one hundred and thirty-five species,) 

 skulls in large number, with several skeletons of each of the large 

 quadrupeds of the plains; about forty boxes of selected fossils, weigh- 

 ing several tons, among them an extensive series of the remarkable 

 plants of the tertiary, first discovered in North America by Dr. Hay- 

 den on a previous exploration, together with numerous plants, Indian 

 implements, dresses, &c. All the large mammals of the plains, buf- 

 falo, elk, deer, bears, wolves, antelope, bighorn, &c, are represented 

 in full by a series of skins, skeletons, and skulls, in perfect condition,, 

 fitted at any time to be mounted and placed on exhibition. 



3. Expedition for the construction of a wagon road from Fort Riley 

 to Bridger's Pass, under Lieutenant F. T. Bryan, United States 

 army. — This party, accompanied by W. S. Wood, esq., of Philadel- 

 phia, as collector and naturalist, left St. Louis in May, and returned 

 in November. The collections of the expedition, though exceeded in 

 magnitude by those of Lieutenant Warren and Captain Pope, were 

 yet of very great extent, and embraced a number of species larger 

 than usual in proportion to that of the specimens, owing to the care- 

 ful selection rendered necessary by the limited amount of transporta- 

 tion. A peculiar interest attached to this party from the fact of its 

 route having been in part along or near that of Major Long's expedi- 

 tion in 1819, who, as is well known, was accompanied as naturalist 

 by the eminent Say. Thirty-seven years had elapsed, and many of the 

 species observed on that occasion, and shortly after described, were 

 either obscurely known or altogether overlooked, owing to the loss in 

 one way or another of the original specimens. It will, then, be a 

 source of no little gratification to those interested in the natural his- 

 tory of America to learn, that in the collections made by Mr. Wood 

 are to be found nearly all the vertebrate species gathered by Say in 

 the way out to the Rocky mountains ; those on Say's return route 

 having also been collected by Captains Marcy, Whipple, Gunnison, 

 and Beckwith, a few years ago. 



The most important collections made under Lieutenant Bryan con- 

 sist of the mammals, birds, reptiles, and fishes. Specimens of nearly 



