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The Navy — The most important of the naval expeditions that have furnished collections to this department were the United States Exploring Expedition, from 1838 to 1842, and the North Pacific Exploring Expedition from, 1853 to 1856.

The former expedition, under command of Captain (afterwards Admiral) Charles Wilkes, U.S.N., had as naturalists interested in the study of marine invertebrates, Prof. James D. Dana, Dr. Charles Pickering, Mr. Titian R. Peale, and Mr. J.P. Couthony, all of whom are now well known from their scientific writings.

Leaving Norfolk, Virginia, August 18, 1838, [[strikethrough]] the [[/strikethrough]] its course lay southward through the Atlantic Ocean, via the Island of Madeira, Cape de Verde Islands, Rio de Janeiro, and the eastern coast of Southern South America, to Terra del Fuego; thence northward along the western coast of South America as far as Callao, and from there to the islands of the Central and South Pacific Ocean, Australia, and the west coast of the United States. The principal places visited in the Pacific Ocean region were the Paumotu Group, Society Islands, Samoan Group, Feejee Islands, Southeastern Australia, New Zealand, the icy barrier of the supposed Antarctic Continent, Kingsmill Islands, Sandwich Islands, and the coast of the United States, from San Francisco to Puget Sound. From the Pacific Ocean the expedition passed by way of the China Sea, Sooloo Sea, and the Straits of Sunda, into the Indian Ocean, making especially large collections at Singapore. From the Indian Ocean, the expedition returned home via the Cape of Good Hope. The collections made in the course of this long cruise embraced every branch of natural history and were exceptionally large. They formed the basis of the United States National Museum at the time of its foundation, and are still among its most interesting features. As many of the regions visited were previously unknown to civilization, the value of the scientific observations cannot be readily overestimated.

As regards marine explorations, most attention was paid to the study of the structure and formation of coral reefs and islands, and the coral, crustacean, molluscan, and fish faunae. The publications, completed in 1858, comprise 24 volumes of text, mostly quartos, 13 atlases and 2 volumes of charts, covering all the geological, zoological and botanical results of the expedition, in addition to the regular surveying