REPORT OF ACTING ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 73 



Commission. Mr. Barton A. Bean, assistant curator of fishes, was 

 placed on detached service, with instructions to report on July 4 to 

 the U. S. Fish Commission, to accompany in the capacity of temporary 

 field assistant, a party sent out by the Commission for the purpose of 

 conducting an examination of the fish fauna of the group of lakes lying 

 east of the Klamatli Lakes in southern Oregon. All necessary expenses 

 in connection with Mr. Bean's trip were defrayed by the Commission. 

 Dr. Thomas Wilson, curator of the Division of Prehistoric Archa'ology, 

 was requested, in connection with his duties as Commissioner from the 

 Government of the United States to the International Exposition held 

 at Brussels, Belgium, in 1897, to avail himself of the opportunities 

 offered by his stay in Brussels to make excursions to points of archaeo- 

 logical interest within convenient reach of the Belgian capital, and to 

 visit especially the newer anthropological museums of Belgium and 

 Holland. He was directed to give particular attention to collecting 

 information concerning the buildings occupied by these museums, the 

 interior arrangements (exhibition halls, laboratories, storage facilities, 

 etc.), and their methods of preparing, labeling, and installing speci- 

 mens. He was also authorized to attend, as delegate from the Institu- 

 tion and Museum, any congresses or other scientific meetings relating 

 to anthropology held in Brussels during the exposition. 



In September Mr. J. E. Watkins, chief of buildings and superintend- 

 ence, proceeded to New York City for the purjwse of examining the 

 exhibition cases in the American Museum of Natural History and the 

 Metropolitan Museum of Art. 



Prof. O. T. Mason, curator of the Division of Ethnology, visited Chi- 

 cago in November for the purpose of examining the collections in the 

 Field Columbian Museum. 



On December 22 Mr. Charles Schuchert, assistant curator of the 

 Division of Stratigraphic Paleontology, was directed to proceed to 

 Waynesville, Ohio, for the purpose of representing the interests of the 

 National Museum in the matter of shipping to Washington the collec- 

 tion of fossils and other specimens bequeathed to the Museum by the 

 late Mr. I. H. Harris. 



On February 25, 1898, Mr. Schuchert visited localities in New York, 

 Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Kentucky for the 

 purpose of inspecting fossils in the hands of private collectors, with 

 a view to completing the series to be exhibited at the Trans-Mississippi 

 Exposition. He was directed to report upon the collections examined 

 and make recommendations for the purchase of desirable material. 



On April IG Dr. Leonhard Stejneger, curator of the Division of Ilep- 

 tiles and Batrachians, proceeded to Philadelphia to examine collections 

 at the residence of the late Prof. E. D. Cope, with a view to identifj'ing 

 specimens belonging to the Covernmentbut which liad been temporarily 

 in Professor Cope's hands for study. He was requested at the same 

 time to avail himself of the opportunity ottered by his presence in 



