Annual report.] 14 [iray 5, 



necessitated by the almost entire rearrangement of the books 

 on furnishing the new library, is advancing as rapidly as pos- 

 sible. The constant employment of a binder in the building 

 has wrought a most agreeable change in the appearance of 

 our shelves. Six hundred and seventy-seven books have been 

 bound, and more than five hundred volumes are at this time 

 in various stages of completion. But the work of the binder 

 has not been limited to the library, for besides the folding of 

 the signatures of our Proceedings and of extras issued to au- 

 thors, six hundred copies of the Harris Correspondence, and 

 over four hundred volumes of the Proceedings have been 

 bouDd in cloth, and more than four hundred numbers of the 

 Journal stitched. The binder has also been employed in some 

 outside work, for which the Society charges but a slight ad- 

 vance upon the cost, and which is permitted by the Council 

 in order to lessen the immediate expense incurred. The work 

 of the library assistants has been greatly increased, by the 

 necessary preparation of so many books for the binder, and as 

 their time has also been partly occupied by the Curators, 

 much work still remains unfinished ; notwithstanding the con- 

 tinual employment of a second assistant, the mass of pam- 

 phlets still remains inaccessible; all new pamphlets, however, 

 have been catalogued as soon as received, and perhaps one 

 tenth of the old ones are now upon the shelves. 



636 books have been borrowed from the library by 82 per- 

 sons. 



In connection with the Smithsonian Institution, the Society 

 has continued to carry on explorations in Central America. 

 Since Col. Grayson's return from the island of Socorro, he 

 has been investigating the natural history of the Sierra 

 Madre, but no returns are expected for several months to 

 come. Col. Grayson's account of his expedition to Socorro 

 and the Tres Marias, sent to us for publication, has been re- 

 vised and partly annotated by Prof. Baird, but still remains in 

 his hands, awaiting the result of additional excursions on the 



