Scientific pursuits cannot be said to be fairly opened to women here. The two ladies at work on the Coast Survey were employed by special favor, and probably on account of near relationship to the gentleman who had charge of the department of latitudes and longitudes. Their work is done at home. Some years ago, Congress made an appropriation for an American nautical almanac; and Lieut. Davis was appointed to take charge of it. Three ladies were at one time employed upon the lunar tables. Lieut. Davis told one of them that he preferred the women's work, because it was quite as accurate, and much more neat, than the men's. In 1854, Maria Mitchell was employed in computing for this almanac, with the same salary that would be given to a man. I may say, in this connection, that a great number of female clerks have been employed in Washington for many years. The work has generally been obtained by women who had lost a husband or a father in the service of his country; and, I am proud to say, such women have usually been paid the same wages as men. During Mr. Fillmore's administration, two women wrote for the Treasury, on salaries of twelve hundred and fifteen hundred dollars a year; but the succeeding administration reformed this abuse, and very few are now at work. In 1845, there were employed in the Textile manufactures of the United States, 55,828 men and 75,710 women. This proportion, or a still greater preponderance of female labor,--that is, from one-third to one-half,--appears in all the factory returns. As an _employed_ class, women seem to be more in number than men: as _employers_, they are very few. The same census reports them as-- Makers of gloves, Makers of glue, Workers in gold and silver leaf, Hair weavers, Hat and cap makers, Hose-weavers, Workers in India-rubber, Lamp-makers, Laundresses, Leechers, Milliners, Morocco-workers, Nurses, Paper-hangers, Physicians, Picklers and preservers, Saddle and harness makers, Shoemakers, Soda-room keepers, Snuff and cigar makers, Stock and suspender makers, Truss-makers, Typers and stereotypers, Umbrella-makers, Upholsterers, Card-makers, and Grinders of watch crystals. 7,000 women in all. There is no mention of female wood-engravers, though we have had such for twenty-five years; and pupils from the Schools of Design have already achieved a certain success in this direction. To the enumeration of the census, I may add, from my own observation,-- Photographists and daguerrotypists, Phonographers, House and sign painters, Button-makers, Fruit-hawkers, Tobacco-packers, Paper-box makers, Embroiderers, Fur-sewers; and, at the West, Reapers and hay-makers.