112 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1918. 



income tax on profit on a sale of certain shares, $1,000,000 of which 

 had been presented to the Institution for the purpose of erecting a 

 building to house his great gift of art objects. I am glad to report 

 that the sundry civil act of June 12, 1917, carried a provision author- 

 izing the cancellation. 



The Springer collection. — For some years past office and exhibi- 

 tion space has been allotted to Dr. Frank Springer, a valued col- 

 laborator of the Museum, for his comprehensive and instructive 

 collection of fossil crinoids and related groups of echinoderms. 

 Recently Dr. Springer decided to give the Smithsonian Institution 

 the title and custody of these collections in perpetuity. lie has exe- 

 cuted an indenture providing for this, reserving their use to himself 

 during his lifetime, and arranging for a fund of $30,000, the income 

 of which is to be devoted solely to the administration of the collec- 

 tions under the specified conditions. The terms of the gift were 

 placed before the permanent committee, which approved its accept- 

 ance. 



On motion the board approved the action of the permanent com- 

 mittee in accepting the gift of Dr. Frank Springer on the terms as 

 laid down in the indenture. 



Bureau of American Ethnology. — Field researches of the Bureau 

 of American Ethnology were continued in New Mexico, where im- 

 portant excavations were conducted in the ruins of the great pueblo 

 of Hawikuh, and an archeological reconnaissance was made in west- 

 ern Colorado, which brought to light the remains of many interest- 

 ing prehistoric tower-like structures of excellent masonry, many of 

 which had not hitherto been known to science. 



Ethnological investigations were continued among the remnants of 

 various tribes in southern California which are on the verge of ex- 

 tinction; also among the Iroquois of Canada, the Fox Indians of 

 Iowa, and the Chippewa of Minnesota. 



National Zoological Park. — The readjustment of the western 

 boundary, a matter of vital importance to the park, is still pending, 

 efforts to have the necessary appropriation made at the last session of 

 Congress having failed. The amount necessary for the purchase of 

 the land to be taken, including the cost of the proceedings, is $175,- 

 G41.43. The matter is urgent, because the area of active improve- 

 ment on Connecticut Avenue has reached the border of this land and 

 is likely to extend in the near future. A marked increase in the num- 

 ber of visitors to the park has been noted. During the first four 

 months of the present fiscal year the attendance was 001,500, an 

 increase of 230,450 over the corresponding months of last year and 

 greatly in excess of the figures for the same period in the record year. 

 This is no doubt due to the great number of strangers and troops in 

 the city. 



