REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 45 



be hero, it h;id better be of this width to move back the buildings 

 which will doubtless eventually 1)0 placed here, so that they may not 

 inmiediatoly dominate that portion of the park which was especially 

 intended to be secluded. 



By act of Congress, March 3, 18H9, provision was made for widening 

 the Adams Mill road entrance to the park and placing under the con- 

 trol of the park, not only the portion of the road within the park, but 

 that exterior to it. As regards the portion exterior to the park, its 

 control as a residential street presented serious difficulties, and the 

 Secretary was willing to see this part placed by subsequent legislation 

 under the control of the Commissioners of the District of Columbia. 



As a result of the circular sent abroad to officers of the United 

 States, mentioned in the last report of the Secretary, the Zoological 

 Park has secured some valua])le additions and has arranged for future 

 acquisitions. An account of these will be found in the report of the 

 superintendent. 



Among the imperative needs of the park are a suitaljle })ird and 

 reptile house, a house for small mammals, and a building for the 

 aquarium. 



Earnest oftorts have lieen made to obtain from Alaska one or more 

 specimens of the great Kodiak ))ear, but so far without success, and 

 unless Congress furnish means to do so within a very brief time, this, 

 the largest carniv^orous animal of the world, will beconie extinct. 



ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY. 



It is gratifying to be able to state that the first and long-delayed 

 vokmie of Annals of the Astroph3^sical Observatory is now aljout to be 

 issued. This volume is devoted primarily, though not exclusively, to 

 the investigation of the infra-red solar spectrum, its absorption lines, 

 and its variations in terrestrial absorption. This research, and the 

 development of the sensitive holographic apparatus with Av hich it has 

 been carried on, have largel}^ occupied the Astroph^^sical Observatory 

 since its foundation, and are a continuation of researches in which the 

 writer was engaged for many j^ears at the Allegheny Observatory. 

 The high degree of sensitiveness and accuracy which have now been 

 reached in the bolometric apparatus of the Astrophysical Observatory, 

 and the still greater progress in this direction which, as will be seen 

 in the detailed report of the aid acting in charge, is now being 

 achieved, place the Observatory in a position to enter new fields 

 of work from which it has hitherto been barred by the lack of suffi- 

 ciently sensitive appliances. 



At the close of last year an application was made to Congress for a 

 special appropriation to observe the total solar eclipse of Ma}' 28, 

 1900, in this country. 



