1154 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 
catch with a hook. If we are ever going to bring together a national collection of 
living creatures to illustrate the animal life of our forests, fields, and waters, it must 
be done now. Weare permitting all these great animals to be exterminated, just as 
we permitted the extermination of the buffalo, and if we take no steps to preserve 
living examples of them—at least in a zoological garden—in the eyes of science, of 
the public, and the world, we will be inexcusable. 
THE PLAN. 
In order to hasten the establishment of a national zoological garden, and to make 
it immediately possible, three eminent persons, a distinguished Senator from the State 
which I have the honor in part to represent, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution, and the Director of the United States Geological Survey, assisted by the judg- 
ment of a practical naturalist whose whole life has been spent among animals—these 
gentlemen, I say, have selected a spot and formulated a plan for the establishment of 
a zoological park or garden in the District of Columbia. That plan, in the form of 
this amendment, comes to us from the Senate with the unanimous approval of the 
Senate itself, the Senate Committee on Appropriations, and also the Committee on 
Public Buildings and Grounds. It contemplates the appropriation of $200,000 for 
the purchase of a site of not less than 100 acres, lying in a certain region, the nature 
of which most of the members of the House are acquainted with, and the balance 
of $50,000 or $75,000 that will remain after the purchase of the 120 acres desired is 
to be devoted to improvements. The amendment provides that the purchase of the 
site and the making of the improvements shall be under the direction of a commis- 
sion composed of the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of the Smithsonian 
Institution, and the president of the Board of District Commissioners. When the 
park establishment is complete it is to be turned over by the Commissioners to the 
Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, who are empowered to receive it and assume 
control of it. 
THE LOCATION AND COST. 
It is declared by those whose judgment in such matters is worthy of acceptance, 
that the site selected on Rock Creek, between the crossing of Woodley road and the 
Klingle road, is incomparably the best that could be found within a radius of 5 miles 
of the city of Washington, and by its natural features is magnificently adapted to the 
purpose in view. It has features of beauty and utility possessed by no similar insti- 
tution in the world. The abundance of water in the stream, and the course of the 
stream itself, are worth more than $100,000 to any such an institution. The pictur- 
esque features of valley, hill, slope, and cliff are unrivaled. A large portion of the 
tract is covered with a fine growth of virgin forest, which affords an abundance of 
shade, and the drainage is perfect. 
The maximum estimate of the cost of the site of 121 acres is $142,000, but there is 
good ground for the belief that this estimate is too high, and that no board of 
appraisement could reasonably consider the whole tract worth more than an average 
of $1,000 per acre, or $121,000. By many eventhat is regarded too high an estimate. 
The ground is owned by seven different parties, but the largest portion of the site 
desired—55 acres of the Evans estate—has never been in the market. The ground 
lies sufficiently near the city to render the garden easy of access, which is a very 
important point. The London Zoo lies in the heart of London, and no one will deny 
that an accessible location is a matter of prime importance. This site was not chosen 
until all the Government reservations around Washington had been carefully exam- 
ined from the Arlington Cemetery around to the Eastern Branch of the Potomac. 
The Potomac flats were fully considered, but it was believed that while it would be 
almost impossible to make so low a piece of land a suitable habitation for mountain- 
