\H) REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



There was also published in the regular series of the Smithsonian Miscel- 

 laneous Collections the following report of researches under a grant from the 

 Hodgkins fund : 



1G54. Researches on the Attainment of Very Low Temperatures. Part II. — 

 Further notes on the Self Intensive Process for Liquefying Gases. By Morris 

 W. Travers (with A. G. C. Gwyer and F. L. Usher). Part of Vol. XLIX. 

 Octavo. Pages 1-14. 



There was in press at the close of the year additional copies of the Smith- 

 sonian Meteorological Tables in the form of a third edition of that work. 



The following work was issued in continuation of the Catalogue prepared by 

 Prof. Edward S. Holden, issued by the Smithsonian Institution in 1898, No. 1087. 



1721. Catalogue of Earthquakes on the Pacific Coast, 1897 to 1906. By Alex- 

 ander G. McAdie. Part of Volume XLIX. Octavo. Pages 64. 



There was in press at the close of the year a work on crabs of the North 

 Pacific under the following title : 



1717. Report on the Crustacea (Brachyura and Anomura), collected by the 

 North Pacific Exploring Expedition, 1853-1856. By William Stimpson. Octavo. 

 Pages 240, with 26 plates. Part of Volume XLIX. 



The work, written by Doctor Stimpson, who died in 1892, is edited by Miss 

 Mary J. Rathbun. In the introductory note the editor thus describes the char- 

 acter of the report and the causes for delay in its publication : 



The North Pacific Exploring Expedition was sent out by the Navy Department 

 under an appropriation from Congress in 1852, for " building or purchase of suit- 

 able vessels, and for prosecuting a survey and reconnoissance, for naval and 

 commercial purposes, of such parts of Behring Straits, of the North Pacific 

 Ocean, and the China seas, as are frequented by American whale ships, and by 

 trading vessels in their routes between the United States and China." The ex- 

 pedition set sail in June, 1853, and returned in 1856. Capt. C. Ringgold, U. S. 

 Navy, was placed in command, but, being recalled to the United States in 1854, 

 he was superseded by Capt. John Rodgers, U. S. Navy. William Stimpson acted 

 as zoologist. After leaving Norfolk the five vessels in service touched at Ma- 

 deira, and then proceeded to Hongkong via the Cape of Good Hope. On this 

 passage the sloop Vvncenn&s and the brig Porpoise took the more southerly route 

 to Van Diemens Land, thence through the Coral Seas, and by the Caroline, La- 

 drone, and Bashee islands, while the steamer John Hancock and the other two 

 vessels of the fleet traversed the straits of Sunda and Caspar, the Carimata and 

 Billeton passages, and the Sooloo Sea. Subsequently the expedition advanced 

 northward, continuing work along the coasts of Japan and Kamchatka, in 

 Bering Strait, on the coast of California, and at Tahiti, returning around the 

 Cape of Good Hope. 



Of the vast collections obtained, it was estimated that the Crustacea numbered 

 980 species. 



A few years after his return to the United States, "Dr. William Stimpson be- 

 came director of the Chicago Academy of Sciences, and moved to' that place 

 nearly all of the invertebrate material obtained by the expedition and belonging 

 to the United States Government. Several preliminary papers had been pre- 

 pared and published by him in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences of Philadelphia, when the collections with notes and drawings were 

 destroyed by the memorable fire in 1871. In a statement of losses sustained, 

 Doctor Stimpson enumerated the manuscript and drawings of the final report 

 on the Crustacea Brachyura and Anomura. After his death in 1872, however, 

 this report was discovered at the Navy Department and was sent to the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, where it has remainded to the present time unpublished. 



In the meantime there are few students of the higher Crustacea who have 

 not felt the need of more light on those rare genera and species known only from 

 brief Latin diagnoses. 



The following report has been treated as an historical document, and is pub- 

 lished substantially as it was written by the author, the only additions being the 

 references to his preliminary descriptions and the footnotes giving the current 

 or accepted name where it differs from that used by Doctor Stimpson. It Is 

 hoped that the value of the descriptions will more than compensate for the an- 

 tiquated nomenclature. 



