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Show 9 NATURAL HISTORY. From the industry of two collectors only, Dr. H. 0. Yarrow and Assistant H. W. Henshaw, very valuable results have been obtained. The collections in many branches have been turned over in bulk to the Smithsonian Institution for examination by special scientists of known and eminent reputation, whose reports are to form a part of the results of the survey. Dr. Yarrow in person, assisted by Mr. Henshaw, has examined and reported upon the collection of birds and fishes. The majority of the reports from the various persons to whom the material has been intrusted are now in safekeeping at the office of the survey at Washington, and when all are received will afford abundant material for the natural historical volume. PHOTOGRAPHS. A valuable suite of landscape and stereoscopic negatives have been obtained, specimen copies only of which have been published. Each season adds iutrinsic value to this collection, and it would seem advisable that some provision should be made for a larger publication, because of the professional interest attached, and also on account of the general interest in everything that furnishes reliable knowledge, in any form, of our western country. The plan proposed for the finished report upon the different subjects that have been investigated, during the progress of the survey, is to bring out a series of volumes, each one of which will contain all the facts bearing upon some special branch of the work. In this manner the volumes will not become bulky, although the material at hand will be sufficient for six quarto volumes. An additional report rendered at this time, containing an estimate for publication, will mention these volumes more in detail. In addition to the reports in special form above enumerated, the manuscript now prepared in answer to Senate resolution of January 9, 1873, comprises a full progress- report for the field- season of 1872, and a finished report of the reconnoissance in Southeastern Nevada, in 1869. I would again urge what has been heretofore submitted to the Department regarding the desirability of so systematizing the operations of the survey as to obtain the services of a permanent and able assistant in each one of the branches in which investigations are to be prosecuted, and that hereafter parties shi) ll be confined to the working out of the rectangular areas, each of which correspond to one of the atlas sheets. The number of parties engaged in carrying out the objects of the surrey can at any time be increased as far as additional officers for executive duties, and a corresponding increase of appropriations, can be made available. The persannel belonging to the present organization, with a few changes and some further training, will constitute a body thoroughly fitted to prosecute individual work in the survey of these western areas. The delineation of their geography is a subject of the utmost importance, and the National Government, in addition to the collection of information necessary to the full understanding of its executive wants, ought to stimulate the struggling industries of the remote and comparatively inaccessible regions, which, while they occupy a part of the public domain, have but few of those powers and privileges that exist in older portions of the country. Of the industries of the western interior, the mineral is the most faE 2 |