38 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



Among the reports prepared for publication, one embody- 

 ing a series of symbolic paintings of ritualistic character, 

 which may be termed a Codex Hopiensis from the tribe in 

 which it was found, is of peculiar interest. Another report 

 of special note relates to wild rice as an aboriginal food 

 source, and touches on the utilization of this plant by white 

 settlers. The publication of the Report was continued with 

 some delay due to the time required for reproducing the illus- 

 trations accompanying the papers. The Seventeenth Report 

 and the first volume of the Eighteenth were distributed dur- 

 ing the year, while the second part of the Eighteenth was 

 finished to the point of binding; at the same time the Nine- 

 teenth Report was edited and proof-read. 



The work of the Bureau during the year is described at 

 some length in the Report of the Director. 



NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK. 



The Secretary recalls to the Regents that the primary pur- 

 pose for which they sanctioned the establishment of the Na- 

 tional Zoological Park was embodied in its name. It was to he 

 a "National" one; and it was not for the City of Washington 

 only, but to be a means of preserving the great animals of the 

 country, and particularly of the North and West, which were 

 in danger of extinction; and it was to exist quite as much for 

 Idaho or Oregon as for the District of Columbia. 



It is earnestly to be hoped that Congress will currj out the 

 plan originally urged upon it, of treating this park as it treats 

 the National Museum, that is, as something not existing for 

 the benefit of the District chiefly, nor properly to be main- 

 tained by the taxation of its inhabitants. In any case it is to 

 be known that while the National Park has been of a great 

 deal of incidental use to Washington as an admirable place foi 

 health, recreation and entertainment, accessible to those who 

 can only go on foot, and offering such charm of scenery as no 

 other public park under such conditions possesses, yet that 

 one of the principal purposes for which it was founded — the 

 preservation from extinction of the national animal races — has 

 not been considered by Congress. About this the Secretary 

 can express himself no better now than he did in his report for 



