46 KEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



The Smithsonian stands burc in the position of a disinterested and 

 independent party, absolutely res])ousible, having a permanency such 

 as no individual or private corporation can represent, and it might very 

 well, it seems to me, in pursuit of its proper objects accept a trust of 

 this kind on the coudition either of seeing itself that the Government 

 accepted it and provided for it iu a proper way or handing it back to the 

 heirs of the conditional donor. It is i)erhaps not too much to say that 

 an important function of the Smithsonian which has lain long in abey- 

 ance may yet be develoj^ed in this direction. 



Assignment of rooms for scientific icorJc. — During the past year the use 

 of rooms in the Smithsonian building has been granted to the Director 

 of the Geological Survey for draughtsmen ; to the Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey for pendulum experiments under the direction of Assistant C. S. 

 Peirce; to the Fish Commission, during the commissionership of Dr. 

 Goode for the sessions of a committee for revising the work and organi- 

 zation of the Commission, and for the storage of the stereotype plates of 

 its publications. 



Kooms and facilities for work have also been granted to Dr. J. F. 

 Bransford, surgeon, U. S. Navy, for the preparation of a report on the 



ject, dwells with special emphasis on the fact that " if the Government i)urchases 

 and fits np a park or extensive gardens there will not be the slightest difficnlty in ob- 

 taining suitable inhabitants. No better illustration need be cited than the menagerie 

 at the Smithsonian. Nearly all the really valuable animals there have been pre- 

 sented to it. The zoo in London, the gardens in Paris, the parks in the cities of the 

 United States, not the least of which are those of Chicago, set forth, with pointed 

 object-lessons, the value and interest these zool-ogical exhibitions possess. A great 

 garden at the national capital could, on the plan proposed, bo made one of the most 

 interesting and instructive of public resorts." The Minneapolis Journal says with 

 confidence that " inasmuch as the expense would be comparatively trifling under the 

 management of th at object of national pride, the Smithsonian, there is every reason 

 to expect that the project will meet the approval of Congress." The San Francisco 

 Call earnestly advocates the measure as one of interest to the entire American peo- 

 ple. It says: "That such a park would be of advantage 'for the advancement of 

 science and the instruction and the recreation of the people ' needs no demonstration. 

 It would be a national benefit, as similar gardens have proved themselves to be in 

 other countries. But there are jieculiar reasons for establishing an American zoo. 

 The original wild animals of this country are being rapidly exterminated. The 

 American bison, better known as the buffalo, is almost extinct. There are a few in a 

 remote corner of Texas, and a few still survive in the Yellowstone Park. But if 

 nothing is done to preserve them, iu a few years they will have disappeared as com- 

 pletely as the pterodactyl. A few moose can still be found in uortliern New York 

 and Maine ; there are still a few specimens of the mountain sheep and goat in the 

 mountains of Colorado ; an occasional caribou is still shot in the Adirondacks ; a herd 

 of antelope is still seen, once iu the way, on the prairies; a few grizzlies survive in 

 the Rocky Mountains, but hunters know to their sorrow that these creatures, once so 

 plentiful, are growing scarcer every year, and will soon have vanished altogether. 

 The traveler on the eastern slopes of the Rockies finds pkiuty of beaver dams, but few 

 beavers, and the anountain lion is almost a thing of the past. To find a complete 

 collection of the wild boasts which once roamed iu freedom over the mountain slopes 

 and the i)rairie8 one must uow go to the north ern section of the Dominion of Canada. 



