44 REPORT OE THE SECRETARY. 



some mounted mammals, &c. The stipulation iu the Congressional 

 enactment, that they were to be taken from and returned free of expense 

 to the Institution, has been carried out, and the various objects have been 

 returned with but a moderate amount of deterioration. 



Earlier in the year similar action was taken in regard to the Chicago 

 Railway Exposition, in the loan of one of the earliest locomotives used 

 in Pennsylvania, and presented, at the Philadelphia Centennial, to the 

 National Museum by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. 



Some collections were lent to the Foreign Exhibition Avhich opened 

 iu Boston September 14 and continued to the end of the year. This 

 was, however, on condition that a very valuable exhibit made by the 

 Rajah of Lahore, and at the disposal of the authorities of the exhibition, 

 be presented to the National Museum at the close. 



Electric Light Accommodation. — The loan by the Brush- Swan Electric 

 Company of a powerful dynamo machine of six 3,000-candle-power, and 

 of a series of arc-lights for the purpose of experiment upon the lighting 

 of the Museum building, as also for use in electric photography, has 

 already been mentioned. A suitable engine for working the dynamo 

 was obtained at the expense of the Museum, and the apparatus put in 

 efficient running order. This has since been under the direction of Mr. 

 A. A. Duly, the engineer of the building, and Mr. William J. Green, 

 the electrician. 



On several occasions the halls of the building have been lighted with 

 this apparatus; and very constant use was made of it in the prepara- 

 tion of enlarged photographs of scenes connected with the fishery 

 industries, to be used for exhibition at London. Several hundreds of 

 these were enlarged from a size of 10 by 12 inches to that of 30 by 40 ; and, 

 being finished up in crayon, constituted a very interesting and striking 

 element of the international display at London. 



In December, Mr. A. A. Hayes, representing the Brush Company, 

 asked the privilege of making an exhibition, in the lecture room of 

 the Museum, of the Brush storage battery system, which was readily 

 granted. A battery was placed iu the lecture room, connected with 

 forty of the Swan incandescent lights, and was charged by the Brush 

 dynamo machine referred to. The exhibition was continued several 

 successive evenings, and was witnessed by a number of Government 

 officials and prominent citizens of Washington who were present by 

 invitation. The exhibition was reported to be entirely satisfactory. 



The light was also used on the occasion of the lecture of Professor 

 Powell, before the Biological and Anthropological Societies of Wash- 

 ington, as already mentioned. 



The apparatus has been left iu the lecture room for such additional 

 use by the Institution as it may desire. 



Forestry Inquiries. — At the request of the Biological Society of Wash- 

 ington, which is very much interested in the question of forest trees (either 

 native or planted) in the District, the Institution issued a circular asking 



