C.

This exhibit shows that 8,189,017 acres of public lands, (exclusive of the six-
teenth or school sections,) were advertised for sale in 1854; that during this pe
riod there were 9,270,691 acres prepared for market and not advertised at the
date of the report; and that the plats of survey of 13,600,000 (including 6,000,000
returned and surveyed in California, Oregon Territory and Washington Territory)
are expected to be returned in the year 1855.

D.

Is a synopsis of public lands advertised for sale since date of last report, and
shows 8,190,017 acres under proclamation exclusive of school lands.

E, F, and G, are estimates of appropriations for the General Land Office, the
offices of the Surveyor Generals and for surveying the public lands in the several
land States.

H, refers to the report of the Surveyor Generals of the several land States, the
substance of which, as far as it is of general interest is sufficiently set forth in the
reports of the Secretary of the Interior and of the Commissioner of the General
Land Office.

VIII. INDIAN AFFAIRS.

Annexed to the report of the Commissioner on Indian Affairs, are one hundred
reports and other communications from the different superintendents, agents, sub-
agents, teachers of schools in the Indian country, &c., containing minute details
of local interest. The result of the whole is stated so fully in the report of the
Commissioner, that it is not necessary to make any particular reference to these
communications. The same may be said of the papers accompanying the report
marked A to H, inclusive, which are accessible in the documents at large to all
to whom they are likely to be of importance.

IX. THE PENSION OFFICE.

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The general results in the operation of the pension system are given with sufficient fulness in the report of the commissioner. Of the tabular statements annexed the following is the only one of sufficient general interest to justify its reproduction in this summary.

Statement showing the number of pensioners in the different States and Territories on the 30th September, 1854.

THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.

The ninth Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution will be made to Con gress after the meeting of the Regents in January.

The amount of the bequest of James Smithson, received into the Treasury of the United States, was $515,169 00. The interest on this fund to July 1st, 1846, was $242,129 00. The annual interest is $30,910 14. This fund is regarded as a perpetual loan to the United States, for the purpose of founding "an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." The edifice which has been erected has cost about $300,000. Much has been done toward finishing and furnishing it during the past year.

The financial affairs of the Institution are in good condition. The library, consisting principally of transactions of learned societies, is valued at $40,000; the Museum at $30,000; the apparatus for original research and illustration at $15,000. Besides this accumulation of property, while the amount of the original bequest remains intact, there is on hand nearly $140,000 of the interest unexpended. It will thus be perceived that there is at present an aggregate in property and money of more than one million of dollars.

The completion of the building appears to have been delayed for two reasons: firstly, that the interior arrangements might be adapted to the wants of the Institution; and secondly, that there might be an accumulation of the income. An application is now before Congress, asking that the amount thus accumulated may be received into the treasury of the United States as an addition to the principal.

The Institution has published a large number of original memoirs, products of the ingenuity and research of citizens of the United States. Copies of these memoirs, are sent to all the principal libraries and many other institutions of the old world, and in the United States. The seventh quarto volume of the series is now in press, and will soon be ready for distribution. In it is contained an account of the Effigy Mounds of Wisconsin. Several memoirs, comprising part of the eighth volume, have also been printed and partially distributed.

The library has received 6,172 additions during the past year: by purchase, 920; by exchange, 3,642; by copy-right contributions, 1,610.

The Institution has established, in connexion with the distribution of its own productions, an extended system of exchanges by which it is enabled to transmit to foreign countries, duty free, the works of American authors, and to receive the works of foreign authors in like manner. The Prussian Minister near this government has just communicated to it the agreeable intelligence that the Congress of the Zollverein has entered into this arrangement, which now embraces all the civilized nations of the world.

A large amount of information on the subject of Meteorology has been collected by the Institution, and will be published as soon as it can be reduced to form, and means shall be provided. A series of lectures has been delivered during the past year by learned and distinguished men. Three national associations have also held their meetings in the halls of the Institution, the American Agricultural Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Association for the Advancement of Education. The interior of the upper part of the edifice is admirably adapted for the accommodation of such bodies, containing a very large and convenient lecture hall, to the east and west of which are two rooms, each fifty feet square, twenty-five feet high, and well lighted.

As it is probable that the proceedings of the Regents, during the month of January, will be of an interesting character, their report for the last year is looked for with anxiety by both the friends and opponents of the present direction. It will not appear in season, however, to enable us to avail ourselves of its contents, for the first edition of our work