10 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. ' 



rats. These floors, together with the walls and ceiliugs,liaYe beetl 

 whitewashed, adding greatly to the purity of the air, and increasing 

 materially the amount of light. Bins have been erected, in which have 

 been stored a large number of the stereotype plates of Smithsonian 

 and Fish Commission reports, and of the bulletins and proceedings of 

 the Kationial Museum, rendering them more readily accessible when- 

 ever new issues of either of these works or of any portions thereof may 

 be required. 



The most important alteration has been made in the arrangement of 

 the basement rooms of the eastern end of the building, which have 

 been fitted up with more special reference to the conditions required by 

 the increasing amount and comi)lexlty of the transportation operations 

 connected with the business of exchanges. These rooms number seven 

 in all, arranged at present in the following order : General reception 

 and delivery; temporary storage; unpacking; assorting; packing; 

 private storage, and storage of duplicates. On the first floor, or main 

 story of the west connecting range, in connection with the introduction 

 of new cases, the ceilings and walls have been j)ainted of a brighter tint, 

 so as to both increase the amount of light and improve the general 

 effect. 



At no distant time some expensive work of renovation will be re- 

 quired upon the ceiling of the great hall in the second story of the 

 main building, as in some places the plaster appears in danger of fall- 

 ing off and injuring the cases and specimens ou exhibition below. 



Complaint has occasionally been made for some years past of the in- 

 sufficient heating of the main building, and especially of the large up- 

 per story known as the ethnological hall, in very cold weather. Dur- 

 ing the past year the radiators have been rearranged and some addi- 

 tional ones introduced, so that it is hoped there will be no cause of 

 dissatisfaction in this respect in the future. 



Rational Museum Building. — This building may now be considered as 

 completed and ready for its final occupation by the various depart- 

 ments which have been assigned to it. An appropriation of $20,000 

 was made by Congress for covering the four halls with marble tiling 

 and the rotunda with encaustic tiling. The introduction of a fountain 

 basin, 20 feet in diameter, in the rotunda, greatly reduced the amount of 

 tiling to be done, and added much to the general effect. It is proposed 

 to have a small fountain jet in this basin, and to have various orna- 

 mental plants growing in it, forming a pleasing prospect in looking 

 across the long extent of over 300 feet from one main entrance to 

 another. 



The only remaining unfinished floor has been covered with boards, 

 like the others of its class. 



The ceilings of a part of the building, after they had dried, were 

 found to be insecure, owing to the lack of sufiicient bond. As the 



