REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 61 



ting the flora, fauna, and the anthropology of these northern regions. 

 For the larger portion of these collections we are specially indebted 

 to Mr. R. R. Macfarlane of Fort Anderson. 



The services of Governor Mactavish, in forwarding his own and 

 other valuable notes which accompany the collections, were also of 

 great importance, and, as in previous cases, the boxes were delivered 

 by the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Garry, after thousands of 

 miles of transportation, free of charges. 



The opportunity afforded of adding to the collections of the Insti- 

 tution by the expedition to connect the United States and Russia by 

 a line of telegraphic communication, was too important to be neg- 

 lected. The directors of the company engaged in this enterprise 

 early called upon the Smithsonian Institution for information in re- 

 gard to the contemplated route, and besides receiving maps and 

 other data relative to the geography and climate of the country, 

 Mr. Kennicott, who had spent several years under the auspices of 

 the Institution in Arctic America, was warmly recommended to them 

 as a person well qualified to assist in the undertaking. The company 

 also received valuable suggestions as to the best line from Professor 

 Baird, and, in return for these services, facilities have been afforded, 

 under Colonel Bulkley, in charge of the expedition, for making col- 

 lections in natural history, &c, on a liberal scale. A prominent po- 

 sition was given to Mr. Kennicott in the survey, and a number of 

 assistants were selected from young men who had also been in 

 training in this Institution; the notes and collections which may be 

 made bj them will be transmitted to Washington for discussion and 

 the publication of such results as may be important in the advance of 

 science. 



The telegraph company not only afforded facilities for making the 

 collections, but also contributed, as did the Chicago Academy of 

 Sciences, to lessen the expense to the Smithsonian fund in the pur- 

 chase of the necessary articles comprising the outfit of the natural- 

 ists of the expedition. The first set of duplicate specimens will 

 properly belong to the Chicago Academy, and the remainder will be 

 distributed in the manner best adapted to facilitate the researches of 

 those who are engaged in the study of the special branches of science 

 to which the specimens may pertain. 



In the southern part of the continent, explorations have continued 

 to be made. Colonel A. J. Grayson, who has previously been a 

 contributor, has examined the islands off the coast of Mexico, and 

 has discovered a number of new species of birds; also Mr. Charles 



