REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 23 



NATIONAL /AKnAHilCXL PARK. 



The iiiiportiincc anil interest of the National Zoological Park, under 

 the care of the Regents, is constantly increasing, the total luunlxM- of 

 \ isitors for the past year l)eing estimated at nearly a million, the num- 

 ber on single days having se\'eral times passed 8(>,00(). 



The Secretary has in pi-e\ious years called the attention of the 

 Regents to the want of a Congressional appropriation for collecting 

 and preserving some of the great land and marine sptM-imtMis of our 

 Western territory now rapidly a])proaching extini-tion. and he again 

 urges the immediate need of doing something, e\'en on the smallest 

 scale, before it is entirely too late. He hopes that Congress may he 

 asked to provide the means to meet these wants by the establishment 

 of at least two small stations or ranches in Alaska, one in the interior, 

 where may l)e secured specimens of the great moose, the great bear, 

 and other disappearing animals o^ the land fauna; the other '"'ranch" 

 to be on the coast for the collection of the walrus, the sea otter, the 

 great sea lion of Steller, and other important \anishing marine species. 



The animals in the National Zoological Park at the close of the fiscal 

 3^ear included oOd mammals, 2313 l)irds, and 14.') reptiles. The acces- 

 sions of the year numbered 314. More than half of these accessions 

 were gifts to the (irovernment, several of the most interesting animals 

 having l)eeu secured through the cooperation of United States consuls 

 and other oliicials. A tine specimen of grizzly bear, also some ante- 

 lope, deei", elk, and ciimamon ]»ears wero received from the Yellowstone 

 National Park. 



The native game, everywhere })lentv when the needs of the j)ark 

 were first submitted to Congress, has grown so nearly inaccessi))le 

 that only after years of etfort have there at last been procured a sin<';le 

 young male specimen of the great Kodiak bear and two big horn or 

 Rocky Mountain slice}). 



The priiicii)al improvements to the park, mentioned in detail in the 

 report of the superintendent on a subsequent page, include the com- 

 pletion of the large Hying cage, an addition to the temporary bird 

 house, and an extension or comj)letion of some of the roadways. 

 Work was begun on a new ele})liant housi^ for which Congress at its 

 last session made an appropriation of Si 0,000. 



Among the present needs of the park, after that for securing native 

 gam(% are ade(}uat(^ provision for housing tropical mammals, an aijua 

 rium, a rejjtile house, an aviary for small terrestrial birds, iind, foi" the 

 wolves and foxes, which are now in temporary quarters, permanent 

 pens from wdifch they may be imable to escape. 



There is no department of the park in which the public takes more 

 interest than in the aquarium, for, notwithstanding the imperfect char- 

 acter of the installation, the tanks being set up in a mere temporary 



