REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 49' 



United States, Mexico, Central and South America, and the West 

 Indies, have been laid under contribution for facts and materials by 

 which to advance science. 



An eminently useful influence has been exerted by the Institution.' 

 through the aid it has afforded in the organization of the different 

 government explorations by land and by sea. Whether by official 

 representations to the heads of departments, or personal influence 

 with officers and employes, it has secured the engagement of indi- 

 viduals competent to collect facts and specimens ; it has instructed 

 persons thus engaged, and others, in the details of observation ; it 

 has superintended the preparation, and, in some cases, borne the ex- 

 pense, of the necessary outfits ; has furnished fresh supplies from time 

 to time to the collectors while in the field : received the collections 

 made, and preserved them for future study, or at onCe consigned 

 them to the hands of competent persons, both at home and abroad, 

 for investigation; directing the execution of the necessary drawings 

 and engravings for the reports, and, finally, superintending the print- 

 ing and even the distribution of any available copies of the completed 

 works to institutions of science. Prior to the establishment of the 

 Institution but little had been done by our government in the way of 

 scientific explorations, with the exception of that under Captain 

 Wilkes. But since then nearly every United States expedition, 

 whether a survey for a Pacific railroad route, a boundary line between 

 the United States and regions north or south of it, or within its 

 borders, a w T agon-road across the Rocky mountains, or an ordinary 

 topographical exploration, has been influenced and aided more or 

 less, as above stated. A list of the expeditions has been, from time 

 to time, published in the annual reports, and it is sufficient here to 

 say that their total number up to the present time is about fifty. 



Besides these, similar explorations have been carried on without 

 any reference to the government, and either entirely or in a great-, 

 measure at the expense of the Institution, and always at its sugges- 

 tion, or under its direction. Prominent among these may be menr 

 tioned the three years' researches in the arctic regions, by Mr. Ken-- 

 nicott, with the co-operation of gentlemen of the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany ; of Mr. Drexler, in the region of Hudson's bay, and also in the- • 

 Rocky mountains ; of Mr. Coues, in Labrador ; of Lieutenant Feilner., 

 in Nebraska and Northern California; of Mr. John Xantus, at Fort 

 Tejon, Cape St. Lucas, and in Western Mexico ; of Lieutenant Trow- 

 bridge, on the coast of California; of Drs. Cooper and Suckley,. in 

 Western America generally; of Drs. Coues and Beers, in. Kansas, 

 4s 



