put into your hands the large legacy of Mr. Smithson, to erect with it grand buildings, make a great parade, and fail in the end as so many others have done. That cannot be expected to be done until your society has become firmly established on a solid basis, and has acquired that high reputation which I hope it will always have in view in the learned world; but, in the mean time, Congress might, out of the interest, aid your exertions in proportion to your progress, and, at least, in the beginning, enable you to make those publications without which you cannot well expect to proceed. Thus your institution would grow under their fostering hand, and, in process of time, the great design of Mr. Smithson would be completely fulfilled. I say, in process of time, for time will certainly be required, before you can rise to the rank in science which you may justly keep in view. In my opinion, you should not attempt too much at once, but proceed gradually and systematically, being satisfied with every year showing to the world some progress, but not imagine that your institution, as I hope it will one day be, will come out at once, fully armed, like Minerva from the head of Jupiter. Trust, therefore, to time, but let it be aided by your zeal, your activity, and, above all, by your energy. Energy is the soul of all great undertakings, but it must be continued, and never suffered to flag.

Here you have, in as brief a space as I could condense them, my opinions, my wishes, and my hopes. Let me, therefore, conclude with the wish of father Paul, which, alas! was not fulfilled as to his Republic, but I hope will apply with more truth to your institution, "ESTO PERPETUA !"

I am, with great regard and esteem,

PETER S. DUPONCEAU.

Stated Meeting, December 14, 1840.

Present, thirty members.

Hon. JOEL R. POINSETT in the Chair.

The following donations were received:

The Journal of Natural History. Published by the Boston Society of Natural History. Vol. 3, No. 3. (On motion of the Hon. LEVI LINCOLN.)-From the Society.

Catalogue of the Library of the American Antiquarian Society. Boston.-From the Society.

Transactions of the American Antiquarian Society. Boston.From the same.

Specimen of the wood of the Aloe Tree. Palm nuts from Liberia. From G. R. Barry, U. S. Navy.

Lignite from the mouth of Magothy River, Maryland.-From Francis Markoe, jr.

History of Tripoli; its present condition, &c. By Robert Greenhow. From the Author..

Synopsis of the Organic Remains of the Cretaceous Group of the United States," and three Scientific pamphlets. By S. G. Morton, M. D.-From the Author.

Catalogue of the Library of the Academy of Natural Sciences. Philadelphia. From the Academy.

Twenty-four Roman, Moorish, and Arabian Coins, found near Velez Malaga. Spain.-From G. Read Esq., U. S. Consul at Malaga.

Paniphlets on Scientific Subjects, by the Chevalier A. B. de Mascarenhas, Portuguese Consul, &c. Bristol, England.From the Author.

A collection of Trap Rocks, from Virginia.-From H. C. Williams.

Specimens of the Red Sandstone of Connecticut, containing impressions of the feet of Birds, &c. &c.: the Ornithichnolites, &c. &c., of Professor Hitchcock.-From Col. Talcott, U. S. Army.

The following letters were read. From Isaac Weld, Esq., of Dublin, honorary Secretary of the Royal Dublin Society; and from Lieut. Wm. F. Maury, U. States Navy :

ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY, 30TH OCT. 1840.

TO FRANCIS MARKOE, Jr., Esq. Corresponding Secretary, &c.

SIR: Absence from Dublin must be my apology for not having sooner acknowledged your letter of the 22d August last, informing me that I had been elected a corresponding member of the National Institution for the Promotion of Science, established at Washington. I beg to assure the members that I feel grateful for the favorable sentiments they have been pleased to entertain towards me on this occasion, and that I esteem it a high honor to belong to the Institution.

We have in Dublin two institutions for the more immediate promotion of sciencethe Royal Irish Academy and the Royal Dublin Society. I have been a member of each for forty years past, but it is of the latter body that I am Honorary Secretary.

The Academy instituted in 1786 devotes itself to Science, Polite Literature, and Antiquities. Original communications are received and read, and those most ap

proved of are published in the Transactions. The Royal Dublin Society takes d lifferent range, and is a much older body. The charter for its incorporation was granted nearly a century ago; and the Society had existed for many years before, as a private body. As it possibly may not be altogether uninteresting to the members of your Institution to be made acquainted with the establishments of the Royal Dublin Society, I shall endeavor to give a succinct view of them.

I. A Botanic Garden, founded about the year 1790, containing twenty-seven English acres, with extensive ranges of Conservatories, all maintained in very beautiful and efficient order. Besides the main compartments, for the exposition of the Linnæan system of plants, others are devoted to the experimental cultivation of useful plants in relation to agriculture, &c. A Professor, Dr. S. Litton, resides at the Garden, who delivers lectures there, in the season, at an early hour of the morning, which are most numerously attended; and other lectures at the Society's theatre in Dublin. All the lectures and all the public instruction delivered under the auspices of the Society are free to the public, without any charge whatsoever; but the Professors are permitted to receive fees from private pupils, when they offer.

II. An extensive Chemical Laboratory and dependencies, well provided with apparatus, under the superintendence of Professor Davy, a cousin of Sir Humphrey, who delivers lectures.

III. Department of Mineralogy and Geology, under Professor D. Scouler, About the year 1790, the Society purchased, at an expense of about £1,500, the celebrated Cabinet of Minerals formed by Leske, a favorite pupil of Werner, consisting of upwards of 7,000 specimens, each of which is elaborately described in a printed catalogue for the benefit of students. The arrangement of this Cabinet has been allowed to remain in its original state; but other series of minerals have been arranged on later and improved systems, and detailed catalogues have been printed, for explanation and study.

With the annual

IV. A general Museum, also under the care of Dr. Scouler. augmentations of subjects, more room has become necessary, and the foundation has already been laid of a new edifice for the express purpose. The Museum is open to the public on certain days in the week, and is usually visited by from 20,000 to 30,000 visiters in the course of the year.

V. Department of Natural Philosophy and Mechanics, provided with valuable instruments and models, under Professor Kane, M. D. who delivers lectures.

VI. Four Schools of Design. 1. For the study of the human figure. 2. For the study of general ornament. 3. For the study of architecture and plain drawing. 4. For the study of modelling in clay.

There is a different master for each school, and each school is open, in rotation, for three hours, on three alternate days in the week, 9 to 12, and 12 to 3. These schools have been established for fourscore years, and since their first opening have never failed to send forth young men who have become distinguished in the British school of arts. At the present day may be enumerated Sir Martin Archer Shee, President of the Royal Academy of Painting in London; Mr. Behner, the cele

brated Sculptor, who made the beautiful statue of Dr. Babington, in St. Paul's, London; Mr. Danby, &c.

We have a fine and capacious gallery for plaster casts after the antique, and which is freely opened to students properly recommended. In the elementary schools an aptitude for drawing is the only recommendation required. There are annual exhibitions of the performances open to the public, and prizes for the best. VII. An extensive and valuable Library, deposited in a magnificent room, with minor apartments connected therewith, and which is yearly becoming more valuable by the new purchases. Though, of right, open to members alone, yet it is always easy of access by introduction.

VIII. The Agricultural Department-for which an apartment of 230 feet in length is now nearly completed-for the exhibition of useful implements, models, &c. &c. A Veterinary Anatomical museum is attached to it, and lectures delivered. In the spring, there are exhibitions, for prizes, of the finest breeds of animalsthe celebrity of which brings over many persons from England and Scotland. IX. Triennial exhibitions of Irish manufactures and productions.

X. Monthly evening scientific meetings, to which persons not members are admissible by tickets, and at which papers are read (coming from any quarter) which have received the approval of a committee of inquiry: those of peculiar interest are published.

It will readily be conceived that an establishment of the nature described must require considerable funds for its maintenance; and besides the subscriptions and admission fees of members, we receive annually from Parliament the sum of £5,600, or thereabouts. The Irish Parliament, during the latter years of its existence, granted annually £10,000 former Irish currency, which was as 108 to 100 British; and for several years a similar grant was made to us by the Imperial Parliament, but the amount was afterwards gradually reduced to our present allowance of £5,600. I may be permitted to explain, also, that this reduction was not founded on any alleged misapplication of the public funds placed at the disposal of the Royal Dublin Society-for all the accounts are rigorously investigated by the commissioners of public accounts-but purely in a spirit of economy and reduction of the national expenditure, from which other public institutions, even those established for charity, suffered at the time equally with ourselves. I have combatted this parsimonious spirit, as bearing upon our scientific institutions, with some earnestness, and at sundry times, but in vain.

It is the boast of our Society, that our superb palace, purchased from the Duke of Leinster about thirty years ago at the price of £20,000; our theatre, capable of containing nearly 13,500 people; our laboratory and philosophy rooms; our drawing schools, and statue gallery since added, have been all the fruits of our individual subscriptions and fees, and not derived from any part of the national funds, which are solely devoted each year to the great objects for which the Society was incorporated the promotion of science and the useful arts.

I have been led further than I anticipated, and fear I must apologise for having trespassed on your patience. In conclusion, permit me to express my earnest

wishes for the prosperity of the Washington Institution, and the continued prosperity of your great and increasing nation.

I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient servant,

Letter from Lieutenant Maury.

TO FRANCIS MARKOE, JR., Esq.,

ISAAC WELD.

Corresponding Secretary of the National Institution.

FREDERICKSBUrg, (Va,) Dec. 5, 1840.

SIR: Be so good as to convey to the members of the National Institution for the Promotion of Science, established at Washington, my acknowledgments of the honor of being elected a Corresponding Member of the Institution.

The favorable auspices under which this Institution has commenced, and the peculiar advantages which it possesses in the zeal and commanding influence of its Directors, and many of its members, give to Science the promise of an abundant and rich harvest from the sea as well as from the land.

To explore the bottom of the ocean along our own coasts, in search of submarine forests, beds of shell-fish, and other treasures of the deep, would be a magnificent undertaking. The field there presented, is rich and rare; and among the more obvious advantages for making collections, the facilities enjoyed for turning laborers into this field have doubtless not escaped the attention of the Institution. The officers of the West India squadron, and, I doubt not, those too of the revenue service, have willing hearts and ready hands. They have but to learn how, consistently with their duties, they may promote the objects of such an Institution. The fifteen or twenty revenue cutters along the seaboard, if furnished with "drags" to "troll" the bottom in light winds, would greatly promote the objects of the Institution.

Not many years ago, the late Admiral Sir ISAAC COFFIN, R. N. had it in con templation to endow three Naval schools in Massachusetts. He actually made a Will to that effect. Each school was to be furnished with a vessel, in which the pupils were to cruise four months of every year, trolling from Maine to Long Island, in search of "unknown or hidden treasures of the deep." Though the Admiral was afterwards induced to annul this Will, the provision of it alluded to above shows the importance which that distinguished officer attached to exploring the bottom of the sea.

Any one who contemplates for the first time the marl beds of our tertiary formation is filled with amazement at the multitudinous remains of the animal kingdom which he there beholds. In wonder, he asks himself, when and where lived these vast quantities of animals? Yet were this observer familiar with the bottom of the sea for a few leagues along the Atlantic coast, his wonderment would be turned rather from the past to the present for he would there find the bottom composed, for miles together, of shells, whose genera and species yet live, and inhabit the unexplored caverns of the sea. Many of the bars and shoals along the Southern coast are formed almost entirely by such shells. Yet so entirely unexplored are the habitations of their living types that even the fisherman is a stranger to them.

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