REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 







To the Board of Regents : 



Gentlemen : I have the honor to present, at the commencement 

 of another session of your honorable board, the annual report of the 

 condition and transactions of the Smithsonian Institution during the 

 year 1863. 



The general operations of the Institution are so uniform from year 

 to year that the several annual reports can differ but little from 

 each other ; the usual order will, therefore, be observed in this com- 

 munication, with only such variations as the special incidents of the 

 year may require. 



It will be seen by the report of the Executive Committee that the 

 finances of the Institution are in as favorable a condition as the state 

 of public affairs would authorize us to expect. First. The whole 

 amount of money originally derived from the bequest of Smithson is 

 still in the treasury of the United States, bearing interest at six per 

 cent., pai<^ semi-annually, and yielding $30,910. Second. Seventy- 

 five thousand dollars of an extra fund are in bonds of the State 

 of Indiana, at five per cent, interest, also paid semi-annually, yield- 

 ing $3,750. Third. Fifty-three thousand five hundred dollars of the 

 same fund are in bonds of the State of Virginia, twelve thousand in 

 those of Tennessee, and five hundred in those of Georgia, from which 

 nothing has been derived since the commencement of the war. Fourth. 

 A balance of upwards of $32,000 is now in the hands of the treasurer 

 of the Institution. 



The unsettled accounts at the close of the year do not exceed two 

 thousand dollars. 



From this statement it appears that the Institution, after erecting 

 a building, accumulating a large library and an extensive museum, 

 supplying the principal museums of the world with specimens of 

 natural history, and publishing a series of volumes which have beem 

 distributed to all first-class libraries abroad, and still more extensively 

 at home, has upwards of one hundred thousand dollars in addition > 

 to the money received from the original bequest. In addition to 

 this, the stocks of Virginia and Tennessee are quoted at about half 



