REPORT OF THE BUILDING COMMISSION. 175 



apparatus continues to operate satisfactorily, bpth as regards the work- 

 ing of the various parts of the machinery and in an economical con- 

 sumption of fuel. The severe winter of 1880-81 subjected the ap- 

 paratus to a test more trying than will be likely to occur again in many 

 years. 



For fuller information, however, in regard to operations of construc- 

 tion, as well as for details of expenditures, the Board is respectfully re- 

 ferred, as in previous reports of the Commission, to an appended state- 

 ment of the superintending architects. 



Although not directly connected with operations of construction, it 

 is deemed not out of place to mention here that the use of the new build- 

 ing was granted for the reception ceremonies attending the inaugura- 

 tion of President Garfield on the evening of the 4th of March last, in 

 view of the event being of a national character, and of the fact that the 

 President-elect had been a Eegent of the Smithsonian Institution for 

 many years. No expense was incurred by the Museum in connection 

 with this occupation. 



Since the last meeting of the Board, the United States Geological Sur- 

 vey and the Bureau of Ethnology have been accommodated with quar- 

 ters in the northeast pavilion, while space has also been freely provided 

 for a large clerical force detailed by General Walker in connection with 

 working up the fisheries statistics for the census report. 



During the year the Commission has met as often as was deemed neces- 

 sary. General M. C. Meigs, the consulting engineer, besides attending 

 these meetings, has continued his visits to the building and given close 

 and critical attention to the many features of its construction. For 

 these and other valuable services he has rendered the Commission it is 

 respectfully suggested that suitable acknowledgment be made by the 

 Board of Regents. 



It is very gratifying to the Commission to be able to state that the 

 conscientious attention paid by the architects to the work the}" have 

 had in hand in connection with the construction of the new edifice is 

 in keeping with their professional reputation; also, that the attaches 

 of the Commission generally have faithfully discharged every duty im- 

 posed upon them; and that while more than eight hundred vouchers, 

 in duplicate, have been presented to the United States Treasury for 

 l^ayment, not a single one has been returned or otherwise questioned 

 by the accounting officers. 



In closing this its third annual report, the National Museum Build- 

 ing Commission congratulates the Eegents that the new building for 

 the National Museum is so far completed as to be ready for occupancy ; 

 and in now asking the Board to take charge of the edifice, the Commis- 

 sion begs to refer to the important fact that, while a building is pre- 

 sented equal in every respect to what was anticipated in case provision 

 should be made for additional quarters for the national collections in- 

 trusted to the care of the Smithsonian Institution, instead of incurring 



