28 REPORT OF THK SECRETARY. 



and 318 feet wide, giving' a floor area of a])Out !>i acres in its four 

 stories. 



The year which sees this most important material accession has been 

 one in which the Museum's most important possession, in the men of 

 science who have devoted themselves to its work with a disinterested 

 zeal, has sutiered a loss in the resignation of a number of its stall', 

 from the lack of appreciation by Congress which would permit it to retain 

 their services. The time in the Museum's history has come, anticipated 

 in my previous reports, when the statil' so slowly gathered, and which 

 is to occupy this new building, is J)eginning to decline. I feel com- 

 pelled here at the outset to call attention to the inadequate salaries 

 paid to the scientific and clerical staff of the Museum, a circumstance 

 that during the past year has caused the resignation of several of the 

 curators, who have accepted similar positions otl'ering greater com- 

 pensation in other cities. An increase in the Museum appropriation 

 has been asked of Congress, since under the present appropriation it 

 is impossible to maintain a proper staff of efficient scientific assistants 

 or clerical help. 



Good progress has been made in the regular operations of the 

 Museum, although nuich time of the scientific staff has been devoted 

 to the preparation of exhibits for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. 



The new accessions aggregated 241,547 specimens, making the pres- 

 ent total census of collections 5,891,000 objects. Important new 

 accessions in the anthropological, biological, and geological depart- 

 ments are enumerated b}^ the Assistant Secretary in the appendix to 

 this report. 



1 may mention here the continued interest in the National Collec- 

 tions manifested by Dr. W. L. Abbott, who each year presents to the 

 Museum many objects collected by him during his anthropological 

 and natural history researches in the Far East, the specimens received 

 during the last 3^ear consisting chiefly of ethnological objects from the 

 Malay Peninsula and nortiiern Sumatra. Ethnological specimens col- 

 lected in the Philippine Islands by Drs. E. A. Mearns and R. B. Gruhb, of 

 the Ignited States Arm3% and objects of interest collected in Alaska b}' 

 Lieut, (i. T. Ennnons, of the United States Navy, evidence the pres- 

 ent interest of many Government officials in the work of the National 

 Museum. The Bureau of Ordnance of the War Department has 

 deposited 615 varieties of firearms of historical value. 



The National Museum acquires its collections mainly through Gov- 

 ernment surveys, by gift and by exchange, but, depending upon these 

 means alone, its collections can never be made complete in any par- 

 ticular. Provision should be made for filling at least the more 

 important ga[)s by purchase. The objects to be obtained in this man- 

 ner ar(> gen(M'ally such as find their way into the hands of individuals 

 who have been at greater or less expense in obtaining them, and who. 



