REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 71 



after the passage of the act, the whole subject was carefully reviewed, 

 and the accuracy of the estimates confirmed by Mr. Edward Clark, 

 Architect of the Capitol, and General M. C. Meigs, of the Army. Con- 

 tracts were then entered into, and as labor and material were at the 

 time at the very lowest figures, several of the estimates were found to be 

 greater than the amount of the contract entered into. Owing to the excep- 

 tionally moderate winter and the freedom from rain and storms, only four- 

 teen days were lost during the year by non-preventable causes. For a 

 full report of the details connected with the construction of the building 

 reference may be made to the report of the National Museum Building 

 Commission, herewith communicated. There is every reason to believe 

 that the whole work will be accomplished within the appropriation, by 

 June next. 



No provision was made in the appropriation by Congress for the con- 

 struction of the necessary cases, but an estimate has been presented, 

 which it is hoped will be granted, so that this work may be started with 

 the beginning of the next iiscal year. The period of complete installa- 

 tion of collections on hand, and the opening of the building to the public, 

 will depend upon the amount of the appropriation and the rapidity with 

 which the contractors may complete their work. The new building will 

 be devoted more particularly to industrial exhibits, intended to show 

 the animal and mineral resources of the United States and their prac- 

 tical applications to the wants or luxuries of man. The department of 

 anthropology will also be largely represented. How far natural history 

 can find a place in the building will depend upon the space required 

 for the collections mentioned. It is confidently expected that this build- 

 ing when finished will be one of the most attractive objects of the kind 

 extant, and but little inferior to the celebrated museums of foreign 

 countries. 



UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



Eeference has been made in many previous reports to the part taken 

 by the United States Fish Commission in the investigation of the condi- 

 tion of the sea fisheries and in the propagation of food-fishes in the 

 United States, your Secretary having been appointed by the President, 

 in 1871, to the duty of carrying out the objects designated by a law of 

 Congress in the same year. Serving without any compensation and re- 

 ceiving simply his own board and necessary personal expenses while 

 actually engaged in the work, he has been obliged, in the increasing 

 extent of his Fish Commission work, to devote to it more and more of 

 the hours that would be usually allowed for leisure and recreation, his 

 prime duty being, of course, to the Smithsonian Institution. 



The work of the Commission is divided into two branches: First, an 

 inquiry into the condition of the fisheries on the Atlantic and Pacific 

 and Great Lake coasts ; and second, the propagation of useful food-fishes 



