SECRETARY'S REPORT 23 



tion in Tamaulipas, Lower Cretaceous deposits near Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca, 

 and a Tertiary occurrence near Guanajuato. 



The recently discovered occurrence of Paleocene mammals in the 

 Bison Basin near the divide between the Ked Desert and the valley of 

 the Sweetwater River in south-central Wyoming by a field party of 

 the United States Geological Survey led Dr. C. L. Gazin, curator of 

 vertebrate paleontology, with the assistance of F. L. Pearce, to com- 

 mence an intensive search for additional materials. 



A grant from the National Science Foundation enabled Dr. A. C. 

 Smith, curator of phanerogams, to proceed from Washington on 

 March 6, 1953, to Fiji, where it is his intention to continue botanical 

 field studies until January 1954 on the upland regions on south-central 

 Viti Levu as well as on Ovalau, Taveuni, and Ngan. 



Dr. Ernest E. Sohns, associate curator of grasses, devoted several 

 weeks in October and November 1952 to collecting grasses in Mexico, 

 mostly in the State of Guanajuato. 



E. P. Killip, research associate in botany, continued his critical 

 studies of the plants of Big Pine Key, Fla., and was engaged also 

 for several months in collecting plants on the Isle of Pines, Cuba. 



Mendel L. Peterson, acting head curator of the department of his- 

 tory, participated in May 1953 in the underwater investigation of the 

 site of a Spanish ship sunk off Plantation Key, Fla. Evidence found 

 on the wreck proved this ship to have been one of a fleet com- 

 manded by Admiral de Torres which, according to documents pre- 

 served in the Casa Lonja in Seville, Spain, was wrecked on a nearby 

 reef during a hurricane on July 15, 1733. Hand grenades, cannon 

 balls, swords, flintlock muskets, silver coins, and pewter utensils were 

 recovered at the site. This fieldwork is carried on under a grant 

 of funds from E. A. Link, of the Link Aviation Corp. 



VISITORS 



During the fiscal year 1953 there were 3,120,657 visitors to the 

 Museum buildings, an average daily attendance of 8,549. This is an 

 increase of 17,006 over the total of 3,103,651 visitors in the previous 

 fiscal year. The 207,420 school children included in this total arrived 

 in 5,041 separate groups. Most of them traveled by bus, and some 

 came from localities as far distant as Montana, North and South 

 Dakota, Texas, and Mississippi. Small groups of schoolchildren are 

 not recorded. Almost two-thirds of all the visitors entered the 

 Museum buildings during April to August, inclusive. April 1953 was 

 the month of the largest attendance with 495,302 visitors; August 

 1952 was the next largest with 430,154; and May 1953 was third with 

 413,736. Attendance records for the buildings show the following 

 numbers of visitors : Smithsonian Building, 623,269 ; Arts and Indus- 

 tries Building, 1,666,613; and Natural History Building, 830,775. 



284725—54 3 



