were introduced. The alterations rendered necessary by changes in the county boundaries, by the building of railroads, and by additional settlements and towns, were also made, and the new edition brought up to the present time with the greatest care. No city in the Union now possesses a more accurate or more elegantly engraved map of its surroundings than does the metropolis of the Pacific coast.

The finished sheet of the map of central California, comprising the southwest quarter of that great geographical work, on which so much labor has been expended, is now in the engravers' hands. A proof may be expected before the adjournment of the Legislature. The four sheets of the "Central California Map" embrace an area of about eighty thousand square miles, on which fully ninety-five per cent. of the population is residing. For a full description of this map the last official letter of the State Geologist may be referred to. It is hardly possible to believe that the Legislature will refuse to sanction the completion of a work of so much value, on which so much time and labor has been expended.

The work on the birds of California has been progressing without interruption since the adjournment of the Legislature, and the first volume is now electrotyped and ready to be placed upon the press. It contains about six hundred pages, and is illustrated by several hundred wood-cuts, consisting of a full length figure of one species of each genus, with a diagram illustration of the details of its external anatomy, and a full sized figure of the head of each species, the latter intended to be carefully colored in the text. These illustrations are believed to equal, if not excel, in accuracy and beauty, anything of the kind yet published. The cuts for the second volume are all drawn, and a considerable portion of them have been engraved, and the work on them is advancing rapidly, so that the electrotyping of the volume can be begun without delay, in case of favorable action on the part of the Legislature. The first volume

of the ornithological series comprises the land birds of the Pacific side of the continent, and the second volume is intended to embrace the water birds of the whole United States; a third volume will be added, which will contain the land birds of the Eastern States, so that the whole series will form a comple manual of the ornithology of North America, and will be the standard work on this subject for a long time to come. The above indicated arrangement was made, after careful inquiry, and with the advice of the leading ornithologists of the country, as the one best adapted to meet the wants of the public, and to insure to the State the largest possible sale for the volumes published at its expense. The volume devoted to the land birds of the Eastern States will be uniform in style and plan with the others; but will not be issued at the expense of the State of California. An examination of the samples of the work, including both typography and illustration, will show how well adapted they are to furnish a scientifically and practically valuable treatise in this department. It will place in the hands of the public the means of identifying any bird that may be met with, in any part of the country.

Work has been suspended during the past two years on the volume devoted to the fishes of California. The illustrations are engraved in part, and can be taken up and completed whenever the necessary means are forthcoming.

The above list comprises all the volumes which are in actual progress of publication, or on which the mechanical work of illustration or printing has been commenced. A few words may be added in regard to volumes of which the manuscript is in preparation.

The volume of conchology, to be edited by Professor Carpenter, from materials collected by our survey, by the Smithsonian Institute and from various other sources, remains as it was at the adjournment of the last Legislature. Nothing has been done towards preparing the illustrations. The same may be said of the volume devoted to the mammals of the State.

Professor Brewer has continued the preparations of the botanical volume, and the collaborators in this department have made progress in working up the different families of plants with which they have severally been intrusted. Professor Gray, of Cambridge, and Dr. Engelmann, of St. Louis, have both spent the past year in Europe, and took with them portions of the California flora, to be studied there. The appearance of this volume, on which already a very large amount of labor has been expended, is eagerly awaited by teachers in all parts of the State, and it will be a great loss to science and to the cause of education if the work shall be indefinitely delayed.

Much time and thought has been given to the working over of the materials for a second volume of the Geology of California. This is intended to close the series in that department, and to embrace a full and systematic account of the geological structure of California.

With high respect,

Your obedient servant,

J. D. WHITNEY.