70 APPENDIX TO THE REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



as well as much expeuse for the acquisitiou of objects and their prepa- 

 ration for exhibition. 



A large force of taxidermists is at present engaged at the Smithsonian 

 Institution in doing the necessary work, and sufficient progress has 

 been made to warrant the belief that with sufficient means everything 

 will be completed in time for the opening of the Exhibition. Tbe cost 

 of putting these articles in attractive cases will, however, be very con- 

 siderable, and must be provided for. 



An important consideration in connection with these displays is tbe 

 tact that their service will not be limited to the period of the Centennial 

 year ; but, as the material all belongs to the Government and to the 

 National Museum, it will all be brought back to Washington, where, 

 with proper facilities to be furnished by Congress, it will be displayed 

 to interested visitors, it is to be hoi)ed for centuries to come. 



So far as the ethnological display is concerned it is quite rea- 

 sonable to infer that by the expiration of a second hundred- 

 year period of the life of the American republic, the Indians will 

 have entirely ceased to present any distinctive characters, and will be 

 merged in the general poi)ulation. It is more than probable that the 

 ethnological collection now being made by the Government will be the 

 only exposition of the past; and with each succeeding year these speci- 

 mens will become more valuable and more highly appreciated. 



The permanent exhibition, too, so complete and exhaustive, of the 

 mineral wealth of the country will also be a matter of great importance. 

 It is propose. 1 to arrange these collections by States, and even by min- 

 ing districts, and as new mines are opened to have them properly 

 exhibited in their series. Nowhere else than in Washington could such 

 a collection be brought together, and nowhere else would it be of so 

 great service in furnishing the means for a proper ai)preciation of the 

 iniueral wealth of the Territories and of the different States. The same 

 reasoning, of course, applies to the other departments of the animal re- 

 sources of the United States, and of the fisheries; and the whole, when 

 combined, may be made to constitute a perpetual exhibition of the 

 resources of the country, as derived from the animal and mineral kiug- 

 (h^ms, as well as from its ethnology. 



In this connection it must not be forgotten that the expense of pre- 

 paring the special anthropological collection for the Centennial has been 

 borne almost entirely by the Indian Bureau, from its portion of the 

 Centennial fund given by Congress to the Interior Department. The 

 direction, however, of the work has been intrusted by the Commissioner 

 of Indian Affairs to the Smithsonian Institution, as the coiL-ctious made 

 will, under the law of Congress, become ultimately a portion of the 

 National Museum under its charge. 



It will, however, be readily understood that the Smithsonian Build- 

 mg will be entirely inadequate to accommodate this collection on its 

 return from Philadelphia, especially as even now it is overcrowded and 



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