REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 15 



The lecture, held in tlie auditorium of the National Museum, consti- 

 tuted also the six hundred and eighty- fourth meeting of the Anthro- 

 pological Society of Washington. The paper will be published in 

 the General Appendix to the Smithsonian Report for 1939, 



EXPLORATIONS AND FIELD WORK 



A number of States in the United States and many foreign coun- 

 tries were visited by Smithsonian representatives during the calendar 

 year 1938, resulting in the acquisition of many specimens for the 

 Institution's study series and in the collection of valuable scientific 

 data for "the increase of knowledge." 



On the invitation of the President, Dr. Waldo L. Schmitt partici- 

 pated in the cruise to the Galapagos Islands. In addition to a host 

 of other scientific material — geological, botanical, and zoological — 

 250 individual fish, representing about 60 different species, were 

 brought back to the Museum for study and permanent preservation. 



A. F. Moore, under my direction, established a new solar observa- 

 tory on Burro Mountain, near Tyrone, N. Mex., where he hopes to 

 obtain good observations. The new station will be particularly 

 useful from December through February, when the other two sta- 

 tions lose many days. W. H. Hoover spent 5 months on Mount 

 Wilson, Calif., experimenting with the growth of plants in nearly 

 monochromatic rays selected from the solar spectrum, and measuring 

 the distribution of radiation in the spectra of the brighter stars, 

 using the 100-inch telescope. 



Dr. R. S. Bassler studied some well-known fossil areas in southern 

 England and obtained, in addition to specimens needed to fill certain 

 gaps in the Museum's study series, infoiTnation for more accurate 

 labeling of invertebrate fossil material already in the collections. 

 Dr. C. Lewis Gazin continued his investigation of occurrences of the 

 earliest mammals and lizards in Utah and brought back a quantity 

 of material representative of Paleocene and Cretaceous fauna, in- 

 cluding one lizard specimen so nearly complete as to be worthy of 

 permanent exhibition in the Museum. Dr. G. Arthur Cooper made 

 a study of Middle Devonian strata in the Catskills of New York, and 

 collected paleontological specimens from that region. 



Dr. William M. Mann visited zoos in 15 European cities, where 

 great progress has been made in the exhibiting of animals and where 

 some interesting breeding experiments are being made. Dr. Rem- 

 ington Kellogg, on a visit to Norway, Sweden, England, and Scot- 

 land, examined and studied cetacean skeletal material in a number 

 of the museums of those countries. W. M. Perry go undertook a 

 survey of a large part of Kentucky to collect bird and mammal 

 specimens to add to the Museum's very meager representation from 

 that Stat«. C. R. Aschemeier obtained 28 turtles and 1,862 fish from 



