REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 27 



5,141.01 iu excess of appropriations, advanced from January 1, 1868, 

 to June 30, 188G, for the exchange of official Governuient documents, 

 and $7,031.81 in excess of appropriations from July 1, 1886, to June 30. 

 1889, advanced for the purpose of carrying out a convention entered 

 into by the United States, or an aggregate of 145,175.82, which has 

 been paid from the private fund of James Smithson, for purely govern- 

 mental expenses. This has still to be reimbursed to the Institution. 



A memorandum in regard to the matter was duly transmitted to a 

 member of the Board of Regents, in the House of Kepresentatives, for 

 the purpose of taking the necessary steps to x)rocure a return by Con- 

 gress to the Smithsonian fund of this last-mentioned sum, namely, 

 $45,175.82, but I am not aware that action has been taken ui)on it. 



NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK. 



It should always be remembered that the establishment* of the 

 National Zoological Park resulted largely from a desire to keep from 

 extinction species of American animals, several of which are now 

 uf)on the point of vanishing from the face of the earth, and will vanish 

 forever if something is not done at once to preserve them. 



The paramount need of preserving these races by immediate legis- 

 lative action, if they are to be preserved at all, the great and con- 

 stantly increasing difficulty of obtaining specimens of some of them, 

 the little that is known of their habits, and the impossibility of ever 

 learning more, unless some immediate measures are taken to make 

 careful observation possible, render it exceedingly desirable that such 

 measures should be taken officially, and no more economical or effective 

 plan could be devised than that of providing a moderate extent of land, 

 near the seat of Government, duly protected and guarded, where such 

 animals as could be secured might be kept in a state as near as pos- 

 sible to that to which they had been accustomed, and under condi- 

 tions where they might be expected to breed, and continue their spe- 

 cies, as they are known not to do in ordinary menageries. 



It was not indeed thought that any efficient check could be given 

 to the final extinction of these animals solely by such a limited num- 

 ber as could be thus preserved, but it was considered that '^Lieir pres- 

 ence here at the Capital would be not only usefnl as regarded the num- 

 ber saved, but as a constant object lesson, under the eyes of the leg- 

 islature, and in this way, a most important adjunct to the larger reser- 

 vations like tlie Yellowstone Park ; while it was evident that oppor- 

 tunity could thus be afforded to study and observe their habits and 

 characteristics, where they were under the eyes of the numerous natu- 

 ralists in the Government service, in a more satisfactory manner than 

 would be possible in a remote wilderness. 



The act providing for the purchase and creation of the National 

 Zoological Park introduced also a subordinate feature, that of the 



Reference may be made to the followiug pages in the Annual Reports of the 

 Smithsonian Institution: Report for 1888, p. 42; for 1889, p. 27; for 1890, p. 34, and 

 Secretary's Report for 1891, p. 21, and 1892, p. 28. 



