116 EEPOET OF NATIOITAL MUSEUM, 1915. 



the other, on April 6, by Mr. T. G. Pearson, Secretary of the National 

 Audubon Society. 



The National Academy of Sciences, during its annual meeting 

 from April 19 to 21, 1915, made use of the auditorium for its public 

 sessions for the reading of scientij&c papers. Included in the pro- 

 gramme "were two lectures under the William EUery Hale founda- 

 tion, entitled " The evolution of the earth," by Prof. Thomas Chrow- 

 der Chamberlin, of the University of Chicago. On the evening of 

 April 19, after the first lecture, the audience repaired to the picture 

 gallery and the rotunda for a conversazione. The annual meeting of 

 The American Fisheries Society was held in the new building from 

 September 30 to October 3, 1914, mainly in the committee rooms, but 

 on two afternoons the salmon industry of the Pacific coast was 

 illustrated in the auditorium by means of moving pictures. The 

 Nineteenth International Congress of Americanists, which had been 

 scheduled to meet in the Museum from October 5 to 10, 1914, was 

 indefinitely postponed on account of the war conditions in Europe, 

 but the organizing committee having charge of the arrangements 

 held two meetings during the year. The honorary scientific society 

 of the Sigma Xi met on February 19 and March 5, 1915, and the 

 Council of the American Association for the Advancement of Sci- 

 ence was given accommodations for a session on April 20, 1915. 

 The twelfth annual convention of the National Rural Letter Car- 

 riers' Association had the use of the auditorium and committee 

 rooms from August 11 to 15, 1914, the foyer also being utilized for 

 an exhibition of small mail wagons for rural service, cartons, etc., 

 for parcel post use, rural mail boxes, and other objects of interest 

 to the members of the convention. Under the auspices of the Vir- 

 ginia Postmasters' Association, a joint convention of postmasters 

 from Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North and South Caro- 

 lina was held in the auditorium from October 5 to 7, 1914. It was 

 supplemented by an exhibit of containers for shipping various kinds 

 of articles by parcel post. 



One of the most important features of the year was the illus- 

 tration of marine life below the surface of the sea by means of 

 moving pictures. Taking advantage of a collapsible tube designed 

 for submarine work, the photographer has been able to picture 

 submerged objects in a manner not heretofore recognized, and the 

 exhibition proved a revelation suggestive of many possibilities. The 

 series shown was part of an extensive film made at the Bahama 

 Islands by The Submarine Film Corporation, imder whose auspices 

 and at whose expense the exhibition was held, being given for the 

 benefit of the scientific men in the Government service. It was the 

 first time that these fihns had been publicly exhibited, and so great 

 was the demand for admission that two sessions were called for on 



