52 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



wliich, in accordance with tlie design of Mr. Downing, was to be entirely 

 devoted to an extensive park. 



Tliis plan has been revived by the present Commissioner of Public 

 Buildings, General Michler, of the United States army, who strongly 

 advocates an appropriation for carrying it into execution. On the 

 gromids adjoining the Institution to the west, also a part of the pro- 

 posed park, within the last year a spacious building has been erected 

 for the uses of the Department of Agriculture, and designs have been 

 made under the present Commissioner, General Capron, for the estab- 

 lishment of an extensive arboretum. With the renewed interest which 

 has been excited on this subject, and the rapid advance of the city in 

 wealth and population, we doubt not the original -plan will soon be real- 

 ized. In the mean time, however, we would call attention to the fact 

 that many of the valuable trees originally planted by Downing are being 

 injured by the luxuriant growth and consequent crowding of those too 

 near each other. Though the ^dsitors to the Institution — and the num- 

 ber of these is by no means small in the course of a year, and from every 

 part of the world — are delighted with the general appearance of the 

 grounds and the pictm^esque effect of the building, yet their sense of 

 j)ropriety is shocked and their olfactory nerves outraged, in approaching 

 the 'building from the city, by having to cross that most disgusting ob- 

 ject known as the "canal," though for years it has done no service of 

 any value in that capacity. It is, in fact, a Stygian pool, from which 

 are constantly ascending in bubbles, as from a caldron, mephitic vapors. 

 That part of it which bounds the Smithsonian grounds and those of 

 the Agricultural Department, on the north, consists of a basin 150 feet 

 Avide, extending from Seventh street to Fourteenth street. Into this is 

 poured most of the excrementitious matter of the city, which is suffered 

 to decompose into offensive gases, and exposes with each ebb of the 

 tide a mass of the most offensive matter conceivable. This subject, at 

 the last session of the Board of Eegents, was referred to the executive 

 committee, w^ho have given it special attention, and prepared a report 

 which will be presented to the Board at the present session, and should 

 be ordered to be published.* 



The only reason assigned for suffering this nuisance to remain so long 

 unabated is the difficulty of settling upon a plan of remedying the 

 e\Tl, but surely this need not longer to stand in the way since there is 

 engineering ability enough in the country to solve problems of greater 

 intricacy than the one under consideration. The only effectual cure of 

 the evil is, in my opinion, to fill up the present basin, and construct 

 a covered sewer of sufficient capacity to receive that part of the 

 drainage of the city which cannot be turned in other directions. A 

 wide street with concave surface to discharge very rare freshets, 

 would afford a* series of building lots of sufficient value to pay the 



* This report will be found in tlie journal of proceedings of tlie Board of Regents in 

 this volume. 



