tlEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 23 



will ho more permanent than the planet itself should take this method 

 of illustratino- them. 



The work promised such magnitude that a conmiittee was appointed, 

 as follows: Mr. Ridg-way, curator of the ornithology in the National 

 Museum, as possible editor; Mr. Holmes, head curator of anthro- 

 pology, and known as an artist of ability: Dr. Gill, the distinguished 

 naturalist, and Dr. Adler, the librarian of the Institution, who has 

 been charged to procure information on the history of the subject. 

 To these it is quite probable there will be later added a physicist and 

 possibly a special colorist, unless these last two qualifications can be 

 found com1)ined in the same person, which is hardly probalde, 



NATIONAL STANDARDIZING BUREAU. 



The Hon. James H. Southard, chairman of the Committee on Coin- 

 age, Weights and Measures of the House of Representatives, invited 

 the Secretary to appear before the committee last April in regard to 

 the merits of a bill then before Congress for the establishment of a 

 bureau of standards, but he was unfortunately prevented from doing 

 so by other engagements. 



It is proper to sa}^ however, that the establishment of a bureau of 

 standards is a mattei" in which the Secretary has been always greatly 

 interested, and that at the request of the Superintendent of the Coast 

 Survey he had an interview with him and made some suggestions in 

 reference to proposed legislation. 



The Secretary was the first to establish a practical plan, which was 

 afterward verv generally adopted by the railwaj's of the United 

 States, for communicating standard time over long distances, and he 

 has always taken a special interest in the subject of determinations of 

 exact measurements in other ways. 



The Smithsonian Institution has preserved in its Museum sets of 

 standards of the United States, and the Secretary has also personally 

 commenced a collection of instruments to illustrate the history of 

 standards in all countries. Certain archaic specimens which have 

 been acquired for this purpose are being at the present time arranged. 



He takes this opportunity of recording the fact of his interest in the 

 measure now before Congress for the establishment of a national 

 bureau of standards, and saying that his testimony, if given before 

 the Committee on Coinage, Weights and Measures, would have l)een 

 in favor of the plan proposed in the bill under consideration. 



PROPOSED CHALCEDONY PARK. 



The region known as the Petrified Forest in Arizona has been a 

 place of much popular and scientific interest, and at various times the 

 question of setting the region apart as a Government reservation has 

 been agitated but without any definite action until the past year, 



