REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT, 1913. 13 



researches the Institution has undertaken to complete and to pub- 

 Hsh. In accordance with the agreement entered into with Professor 

 ^\^litman's heirs this unrivaled collection of biological material will 

 become the property of the Institution, and arrangements have been 

 made for its transfer to Cold Spring Harbor from Chicago before the 

 end of the calendar year. 



Similarly, two items from the current history of the Department of 

 Terrestrial Magnetism are worthy of mention here. One of these 

 is the approaching completion of an office and laboratory building 

 whose construction was approved by the Board of Trustees a year 

 ago. Floor plans of this building are incorporated in the annual 

 report of the Director of the department in the current Year Book. 

 The building is situated on a very favorable, elevated site of a little 

 less than seven acres in the District of Columbia, near Chevy Chase, 

 and near the western boundary of Rock Creek Park. It will be 

 fireproof, will furnish safe storage for the extensive records already 

 acquired by the department, and will afford opportunity for experi- 

 mental researches in terrestrial magnetism which may be confidently 

 expected to give deeper insight into this obscure but at present 

 highly utifitarian property of our planet. The other noteworthy 

 event referred to is the near completion of a circunmavigation voyage 

 of about three and a half years' duration and of courses aggregating 

 92,000 miles, in round numbers, by the non-magnetic ship Carnegie. 

 Experience with this ship shows that a magnetic survey of the oceans 

 is a somewhat less formidable undertaking than a magnetic survey 

 of the continents, for the latter are still, on the whole, less accessible 

 than the former since the advent of this non-magnetic nautical 

 observatory. Great credit is due to Mr. W. J. Peters, commander of 

 this ship, for assiduous attention not only to her safety, but also to 

 the effectiveness of her mission in the immediate interests of the 

 world's navigation and in tlie more important, though less obvious, 

 interests of terrestrial physics. 



Reference was made in the report of a year ago to the construction 

 of a fireproof office building at Pasadena, California, for the staff of 

 the Solar Observatory. This building has been occupied during the 

 past year, and its characteristics are shown by illustrations in photo- 

 perspective and in plan in the current Year Book. In addition 

 to suppl3dng appropriate quarters for the departmental staff and 

 storage for the accumulating records of the Observatory, it furnishes 

 in its sub-basement a constant-temperature room in which will be 

 installed a dividing engine designed especially to rule diffraction 

 gratings for use with the other optical apparatus of the Observatory. 



