XX PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS. 



others the continuation of his experiments in aerodromics, which, with 

 the consent of the Regents, he was making- for the War Department, 

 and of the results of the eclipse expedition of May, 1900, further than 

 to sa^' in regard to the latter that the}^ were of rather more than 

 ordinary importance; that they had left one or two interesting but 

 unsettled (Questions, particularly that as to the possibilities of the 

 observation of Intramercurial i)lanets, which had determined him to 

 send out a small expedition to Sumatra to settle these questions on the 

 occasion of the exceptionally important eclipse of the sun in May of 

 the piesent 3^ear. 



Ur of the CJialdees. — In October, 1899, Dr. Edgar James Banks, of 

 Cambridge, Mass., had written to inquire whether the Smithsonian 

 Institution would accept a collection of Babylonian antiquities, if such 

 could be procured. He stated that he hoped to be able to secure val- 

 uable material by excavating at the town of Mugheir, situated on the 

 Euphrates River, which, according to tradition, is the site of Ur of 

 the Chaldees, from which Abraham came. Being satisfied after inves- 

 tigation of the standing of Dr. Banks, and one of the Regents of the 

 Institution being among the vice-presidents of his association, the Sec- 

 retary accepted his proposition, whicli conmiitted the Institution to 

 nothing but the receipt of the finds. One of the employees of the 

 National Museum would be of the party and would collect ethnological 

 and natural histor}- specimens. Any prediction with regard to the 

 expedition nmst be premature, but it might be said that this site, if 

 correctly chosen, was one of the most importance for students of the 

 Bible and of ancient history yet to be examined, and that there was 

 reasonable expectation that the Institution would reap a reward. 



Smithsonian deposit in the Lihrary of Congi\'SK.— T]iQ Smithsonian 

 deposit was created originally by a relative!}^ ver}- large expenditure 

 from the proper funds of this Institution, nearly half whose income 

 went in this direction for several years. The money, the Secretary 

 was told, was spent at a time when such things were cheaper than 

 now, and well spent, for a varied collection of works, partly but not 

 exclusively scientific; but during the last twenty-five years the nu- 

 menseh' increasing demand upon the small fund of the Institution had 

 caused it to add little to its librarj^ by direct purchase, though this had 

 continued to increase largely through the exchange S3^stem, chiefly in 

 the direction of scientific periodicals. 



The Regents would remember the Secretary's explaining to them 

 two years ago that by an informal arrangement made between Pro- 

 fessor Henry and the Library Committee, in 1866, the Lil)rary of Con- 

 gress was not required to keep the Smithsonian books together, but 

 merely to see that they had a proper mark indicating that they 

 belonged to the Institution. 



These books, which Congress had assumed the care of, had been 



