18 
In 1825-’6, when Gen. Rodil was besieged in the castles of Callao, and the 
port was blockaded, the men-of-war that were there turned their attention, for the 
want of a market on shore, to the resources of the harbor itself. H. B. M. ship 
Briton resorted to the expedient of trolling the harbor for shell-fish, and discover¬ 
ed banks of them. One of the greatest delicacies to be found now in the excel¬ 
lent fish market of Lima are the Britones of Callao, (so called in honor of the 
vessel.) Although the fishermen of Callao and Lima had been almost in the 
daily habit of fishing over these banks for two or three hundred years, it was not 
known, except by a dead shell cast up here and there on the beach, that such a 
shell-fish was to be found in the waters of Peru. This fact is mentioned to show 
how little is known of the bottom of the sea, even at those points which are most 
frequented. 
If those vessels which use the troll could be induced to keep a record of their 
labor, such records would, in the course of time, enable the Institution to construct 
a chart of the coast, showing the unproductive from the fruitful and habitable parts 
of the bottom of the ocean—a work which would have the merit of being both 
useful and new, 
I have the honor to be, &c. 
M. F. MAURY, U. S. N. 
A letter to the American Philosophical Society of Philadel¬ 
phia was read, announcing officially the existence of the Na¬ 
tional Institution, and asking its correspondence; and the re¬ 
ply of the Society, accepting with pleasure the offered corre- 
* 
spondence, and stating that directions had been issued to 
furnish the Institution with the printed proceedings of the So¬ 
ciety, and its future Volumes and Transactions. 
And a letter from J. W. Vandenbroek, Consul of the Uni¬ 
ted States at Amsterdam, offering specimens of the Birds of 
Holland, for the Cabinet of the Institution. 
Stated Meeting , January 1 , 1841. 
Present, thirty-one members. 
Hon. Joel R. Poinsett in the Chair. 
The following donations were received : 
Abridgment of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Lon¬ 
don from 1665 to 1744, in 6 vols., 4to.— From Thomas 
Gilpin , Philadelphia . 
