26 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



The agents of the Institution still continue to he Dr. Felix Flugel, 

 Leipsic, Gustave Bossange, Paris, Wm. Wesley, London, Frederic 

 Muller, Amsterdam. 



Besides these gentlemen, Mr. James Swaim, now residing in Paris, 

 has been appointed a special scientific agent for the purchase of phi- 

 losophical apparatus and the transaction of other business", the duties 

 of which he discharges gratuitously and to the great advantage of 

 the Institution. We regret that notice of this fact was inadvertent- 

 ly omitted in the last annual report. 



Explorations and collections. — As has been stated in previous reports, 

 it is an important part of the operations of the Institution to en- 

 courage, assist and organize explorations for such portions of North 

 and South America as have not been thoroughly investigated in re- 

 gard to pi^sical geography, climate and natural history. During the 

 past year this part of the operations has been prosecuted with un- 

 abated energy, principally under the immediate supervision of Prof. 

 Baird. 



Those which have been made directly or indirectly under the guid- 

 ance of the Institution, and more or less at its expense, are as fol- 

 lows: 



British America. — Explorations and collections of specimens by 

 officers of the Hudson's Bay Company in continuation of those of 

 former years, especially those of Mr. Robert MacFarlane on the An- 

 derson river, and of Mr. W. Brass, at Fort Halkett; Jas. Flett, at 

 La Pierre's House; 0. P. Gaudet, at Fort Good Hope; William L. 

 Hardisty, at Fort Simpson; Strachan Jones, at Fort Rae; Jas. Lock- 

 hart, at Resolution; John Reed, at Big Island; Jas. Sibbiston and 

 Rev. Jas. MacDonald, at Fort Yukon, and Donald Gunn, west of Lake 

 Winnipeg; also in Labrador by Messrs. Henry Connolly and Donald A. 

 Smith. 



Russian America. — The explorations of the Collins extension of the 

 Western Union Telegraph Company under Col. Charles L. Bulkley 

 have been continued, and a large amount of interesting matter in re- 

 gard to the ethnology, topography, and natural history of the country, 

 collected principally by the following gentlemen has been received: 



Colonel Bulkley, Captain Scammon, Dr. Fisher, Captain Sands, 

 R. Kennicott, W. H. Dall, H. M. Bannister, J. T. Rothrock, Charles 

 Pease, F. Bischoff, Lt. Davison, &c. Some of the collections in 

 natural history were made by the members of this company in 

 Kamtschatka and the western side of Behring straits. 



