REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.

To the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution.

GENTLEMEN: Nothing of especial interest has occurred during the past year to mark an epoch in the history of the institution over which you preside. The several objects set forth in the plan of organization have been prosecuted as far as the funds which could be devoted to them would allow. A knowledge of the true character of the institution has been gradually extended, and it is a subject of gratification that the plan of operations is more highly appreciated the better it is understood. Every succeeding year which is added to the age of the institution will render it more stable, so long as it pursues undeviatingly the same course. All establishments, however, which are supported by bequests, intended to promote the public good, are necessarily subjected to the scrutiny of all who consider themselves personally interested in the trust. The managers are overwhelmed with suggestions, and subjected to illiberal criticisms, and unless they are firmly convinced of the propriety of their course, and have sufficient moral courage to pursue it notwithstanding opposition, there is danger of vacillation, and of an attempt to gain popularity by adopting measures not calculated to promote the desired end. It should, however, be recollected that opinions ought to be weighed rather than counted, and that nothing of importance can be accomplished either by an individual or an institution, except by constant and laborious exertion in one direction. In the beginning of this institution the plans best calculated to realize the liberal intentions of the donor were adopted after due deliberation, and have been constantly adhered to and developed as far as the requisitions of Congress and the limited income would allow. From the character of James Smithson and his pursuits there can be no reasonable doubt as to his intention in regard to the bequest. He was a man familiar with the precise language of exact science, and no other construction ought to be put upon the words of his will than that which a strict interpretation will allow. He leaves his erty to found an establishment which shall bear his own name, and have for its object "the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." It would evidently be incompatible with an enlarged and just interpretation of this will to confine its benefits exclusively to one people, and especially would it be unworthy the character of a great nation to accept the administration of a bequest intended for the good of mankind, and to apply it exclusively to its own use.

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Nothing apparently can be further from the truth than the idea which

was first prevalent in this country that Smithson left his money merely to diffuse practical knowledge among the people of the United States. On the contrary he intended this institution as a monument to his name which should be known of all men, and prized by the student of every branch of literature and science, which should not be restricted to merely spreading abroad the knowledge which already exists, but, above all, should be the means of enlarging the bounds of human thought. He was also too much of a philosopher to confine his bequest to the promotion of any one branch of literature or science, and therefore left the trust free to be applied to all.

His will recognizes a well established and very important distinction with regard to knowledge, viz. its increase and its diffusion. These, though frequently confounded, are very different processes, and each may exist independent of the other. While we rejoice that in our country, above all others, so much attention is paid to the diffusion of knowledge, truth compels us to say that comparatively little encouragement is given to its increase.

There is another division with regard to knowledge which Smithson does not embrace in his design, viz. the application of knowledge to useful purposes in the arts; and it was not necessary he should found an institution for this purpose. There are already in every civilized country establishments and patent laws for the encouragement of this department of mental industry. As soon as any branch of science can be brought to bear on the necessities, conveniences, or luxuries of life, it meets with encouragement and reward. Not so with the discovery of the incipient principles of science. The investigations which lead to these receive no fostering care from government, and are considered by the superficial observer as trifles unworthy the attention of those who place the supreme good in that which immediately administers to the physical necessities or luxuries of life.

If physical well being were alone the object of existence, every avenue of enjoyment should be explored to its utmost extent. But he who loves truth for its own sake, feels that its highest claims are lowered and its moral influence marred by being continually summoned to the bar of immediate and palpable utility. Smithson himself had no such narrow views. The prominent design of his bequest is the promotion of abstract science. It leaves to the teacher and the teeming press to diffuse popular knowledge, and to the Patent Office and the manufacturer to facilitate and reward the application of science to the useful arts. In this respect the Institution holds an otherwise unoccupied place in this country, and adopts two fundamental maxims in its policy: 1st, to do nothing with its funds which can be equally well done by other means; and, 2d, to produce results which, as far as possible, will benefit mankind in general. Any deviations from these maxims which the history of the Institution may exhibit, must be referred to the original requirements of the law of Congress authorizing its establishment, and not to the plan of active operations at first proposed in the programme, and which has constantly been kept in view from the beginning until the present time.

A miscellaneous and general library, museum, and gallery of art, though important in themselves, have from the first been considered by

those who have critically examined the will of Smithson, to be too restricted in their operations and too local in their influence, to meet the comprehensive intentions of the testator; and the hope has been cherished that other means may ultimately be provided for the support of those objects, and that the whole income of the Smithsonian fund be devoted to the more legitimate objects of the noble bequest.

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I have been informed by the Commissioner of Patents that the space now occupied in the building of the Patent Office by the national museum, is imperatively required for the display of models; and he suggests that a part or the whole of the Smithsonian building shall be purchased for the deposit of this collection. If Congress will entirely relieve the Smithsonian fund from the expense of collecting and maintaining a museum, a large portion of the present building would be unnecessary, and the proposition to purchase a part or the whole of it might properly be entertained. The Smithsonian Institution, if required, would take the supervision of a government museum, and would turn over to it all the specimens collected after they had been examined and described. The importance of a collection at the seat of government to illustrate the physical geography, natural history, and ethnology of the United States, cannot be too highly estimated. But the support of such a collection ought not to be a burthen upon the Smithsonian fund. It was stated in the last report that the plan of an equal division of the income between the library and museum on the one hand, and the lectures, the publications, and researches on the other, was found not to work well in practice. It leads to inharmonious action, and to a system of expenditure by no means compatible with proper economy or the limited income of the Smithsonian fund. The subject has, however, been referred to a special committee of the Regents, which I trust will give it due consideration, and report their views during the present session of the Board.

Publications. During the past year no diminution has taken place in the objects of interest which have presented themselves for the assistance and patronage of the institution. The amount of publications has only been limited by the appropriation which could be devoted to this purpose.

1. The first memoir published during the past year is one by Dr. Joseph Leidy, Professor of Anatomy in the University of Pennsylvania, entitled, "The Ancient Fauna of Nebraska."

A considerable portion of the country between the Mississippi and the Rocky mountains consists of the more recent geological deposits, and particularly on the Upper Missouri there exists a tract of country known by the name of the Mauvaises Terres, or the Bad Lands; this at one time was probably the bottom of an immense lake, in which perished thousands of animals having no representatives at this time on the surface of the earth. It appears that the waters of this lake were removed by some convulsion of nature, that the sediment at its bottom became indurated, and that afterwards the whole country was traversed by an immense wave of water, which carried away the softer parts of the strata, and left standing the harder parts in a series of irregular prismatic and columnar masses frequently

capped with irregular pyramids, and extending upwards to a height of from one to two hundred feet. "Viewed in the distance, these rocky piles in their endless succession assume the appearance of massive architectural structures, with all the accessories of buttresses, turrets, and tapering spires." The portion of the surface thus excavated forms a valley of ninety miles in length and thirty in breadth, which in its most depressed portion is about three hundred feet below the surface of the surrounding country. So thickly are the natural towers studded over the surface of this extraordinary region, that the traveller threads his way through deep confined passages, which resemble the narrow irregular streets and lanes of some of the old towns of the continent of Europe. At the foot of these columns, the remains of the ancient animals, which lived and breathed long before the advent of man upon the face of the earth, are found in such abundance as to form of this tract an extensive cemetery of vertebrated animals, rivalling, in the variety of its extinct species, the celebrated beds of the Paris basin. This region having been brought to notice by a few fossil remains procured through the agents of the American Fur Company, an appropriation of about $200 for its exploration was made by the Smithsonian Institution to Mr. Thaddeus Culbertson, who was about to visit, on account of his health, the sources of the Missouri. The specimens of fossil remains which were thus procured, together with a collection subsequently presented to the Institution by Capt. Stewart Van Vliet, of the U. S. army, and several specimens kindly lent by Dr. Prout, of Missouri, were referred to Dr. Leidy for examination. In addition to these he had the use of a collection lent by Prof. O'Loghland, of Missouri, specimens belonging to the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, and a collection made by Dr. Evans, at the instigation of Dr. D. Dale Owen, the whole embracing all the specimens which have yet been brought to the east from the Bad Lands. The bones are completely petrified, and their cavities filled with silicious matter. They are preserved in various degrees of integrity, some being beautifully perfect and others broken and imperfect, the latter having been evidently subjected to violence while imbedded in a soft mud. The animals belong to the classes mammalia and chelonia, or turtles. With a single exception, all the species of mammalia belong to the great order of ungulata or hoofed animals, of which there are seven species of four genera, which belong to the ruminantia, or cud-chewing animals; two species of one genus belonging to the paradigitata ordinaria, or eventoed animals; one species of the solipedia, or solid-hoofed animals; and four species of three genera belonging to the imparidigitata ordinaria, or uneven-toed animals.

The first specimen described belonged to a peculiar genus of ruminants which, among recent animals, is more nearly allied to the musk, and was probably hornless. The next is of a remarkable genus of ungulata representing a type which occupies a position in the wide physiological interval existing between recent ruminants and the anomalous fossil animal called the anoplotherium. Another genus is called oreodon, and constitutes one of the links necessary to fill up the very wide gap between existing ruminants and an exceedingly aberrant form of the same family now extinct. Another organic relic is that of an

animal which combined the ruminant and carnivorous characteristics, of which there are several species. There are also two remarkable species of rhinoceros, differing from any remains of this animal found in other parts of the globe. The existing species of the rhinoceros are met with in Africa, Asia, and the islands of Java and Sumatra. Remains of extinct species have been found in Great Britain, the continent of Europe, Siberia, and the Himalayas; but no trace of this genus had previously been discovered in America. Another fossil remain belongs to the feline family, about a fifth smaller than the American panther, and is probably the most ancient known genus of this animal. Hundreds of fossil turtles are found in the "Bad Lands;" they belong to the genus testudo, of which five species are described in this paper.

The memoir occupies one hundred and twenty-six pages, and is illustrated by twenty-four plates, one of which is a folio. It has already been printed and copies distributed among working geologists. No copy-right is secured on the publications of the Institution; and it may be mentioned here, as an illustration of the manner in which the knowledge contained in the Smithsonian memoirs reaches the public generally in a popular form, that one of the figures of this paper has already been copied, and some of its materials given in a recent work on geology.

2. Another paper, the printing of which is nearly complete, is on the "Winds of the Northern Hemisphere," by Prof. James H. Coffin, of Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania. It is the same which was mentioned in the Report for 1851. Its publication has been delayed in consequence of the difficulty experienced in finishing the maps and printing the tabular matter, and also on account of additions made to it by the author. It is a very elaborate memoir, of two hundred pages, consisting principally of tabular matter, and illustrated by thirteen maps. The most important results arrived at in this paper, are as follows: There exist in the northern hemisphere three great zones of wind, extending entirely around the earth, modified and, in some cases, partially interrupted by the configuration and character of the surface. The first of these is

the trade wind, near the equator, blowing, when uninterrupted, from northeast to southwest. This belt is interrupted, however, in the Atlantic ocean, near the coast of Africa, upon the Mediterranean sea, and also in Barbary by the action of the Great Desert. The second is a belt of westerly wind, nearly two thousand miles in breadth, between latitude 350 and 60° north, and encircling the earth, the westerly direction being clearly defined in the middle of the belt, but gradually disappearing as we approach the limits on either side. North of this, there is another system of winds flowing southwardly from high northern latitudes, and gradually inclining towards the west as it moves into a latitude of greater easterly velocity.

Subsequent investigations have led Prof. Coffin to conclude that the lines which separate these systems are not parallels of latitude, but circles, having a common pole in about latitude 84° north, and longitude 105° west from Greenwich, and that the winds of high northern latitudes diverge or radiate from this point.

The principal cause of these phenomena is the greater heat of the