32 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



handled, the total for the year being 158,988, having un aggregate 

 weight of 481,410 pounds. 



The chief clerk of the service, Mr. W. Irving Adams, visited 

 Europe during the year and was successful in promoting a more gen- 

 eral interest in the interchange of books with several countries, as 

 well as inaugurating many improvements in the prompt transmission 

 of packages. 



Dr. Carl Felix Alfred Fliigel, who had served as agent of the Insti- 

 tution at Leipzig for forty-nine years, died on February 6, 1904, and 

 was succeeded by Mr. Karl W. Hiersemann, of the same city. 



Some progress has been made toward the reestablishment of exchange 

 relations with China, and in general the condition of the " Exchanges" 

 is one to cause satisfaction to those who are laboring for its advance. 



NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK. 



Under the care of the Regents the National Zoological Park con- 

 tinues to fulfill the objects of Congress in its foundation so etiectivcly 

 that perhaps no department of the Government service gives such 

 widespread benefit in health and pleasure to the iidiabitants of the 

 District. As a consequence the number of visitors constantly con- 

 tinues to increase, there having been considerably more than a million 

 during the past year. 



The number of animals exhibited and maintained in the park has 

 gradually augmented year by year, the net increase during the past 

 season amounting to more than 10 per cent of the total on hand at the 

 beginning of that period. This has necessarily occasioned a crowding, 

 which is not conducive to the welfare of the animals. In order to 

 relieve this in some degree, it was decided to build a new house which 

 should serve as quarters for some of the more important ones and in 

 which they would be under moi'e wholesome conditions of tempera- 

 ture. This house will be a substantial stone structure, not unduly 

 conspicuous, but harmonizing with the group in which it stands. At 

 the present time oidy the walls of this building are completed. The 

 cost of construction will be defrayed from the general appropriation 

 for the park, which necessarily ])revents any considerable expenditure 

 of funds for other objects than the maintenance and care of the collec- 

 tion. A plan of the buildmg is given in the superintendent's report 

 (Appendix IV). 



I have in previous reports during the past ten years urged the 

 desira])ility— even the imperative necessity— of provision for the pres- 

 ervation of oui- vanishing races of animals, if they were to be saved 

 from extinction. Repeated experience has demonstrated the fact that 

 some of tiie largest of our nativ(^ hei'bivorous animals will not thrive 

 when closely contined. Even the American l)ison, it appears, can not 



