FIFTIETH CONGRESS, 1887-1889. 1155 
loving animals, it would also cost four times as much to make it habitable at all as it 
would cost to purchase the site on Rock Creek. A zoological garden must have 
dry knolls and well-drained slopes to make it even habitable for wild beasts in rainy 
weather. It was decided that it would be a serious and costly mistake to locate the 
gardens on the flats, even though the ground cost nothing in purchase money. The 
site on Rock Creek is to-day, without the expenditure of a single dollar, a beautiful 
and picturesque park, with features of loveliness for which the city of New York 
would gladly pay $1,000,000 were it possible to place them in Central Park by the 
expenditure of money. 
It is not too much to assert that the character of the three men who have proposed 
the plan makes the plan itself stand, like Czesar’s wife, above suspicion. Not one of 
the promoters of the plan owns a dollar’s worth of property anywhere in that region, 
nor do any of them expect to own any there. It is the sincere conviction of the dis- 
tinguished Senator who introduced this measure, and of the other Senators who have 
by every means in their power facilitated its passage thus far, that it would be a boon 
to the public, not only of this city but of the whole United States as well, to secure 
that beautiful spot to the people forever, and establish there a great national zoologi- 
cal garden to instruct not only the millions of the present but also the millions whica 
will come after us. 
COLLECTIONS. 
It has been proven conclusively by the records of the Department of Living Ani- 
mals, lately established by the National Museum, that an institution of this kind 
could and would acquire fully three-quarters of all its collections of American ani- 
mals by donation. This has actually been the experience of that department during 
the eight months of its existence. It has made 30 purchases and received 114 gifts, 
and the cash value of the gifts is declared to be six times as great as the value of all 
the specimens purchased. As has been proven by the receipt of rare and valuable 
gifts of live animals from Texas, Kentucky, New York, Alabama, Nebraska, Montana, 
and Utah, to say nothing of the city of Washington, Virginia, and Maryland, the 
people of the United States will take unbounded pride in such an institution as it is 
proposed to establish. Gifts will come pouring in from every direction the moment 
it is known that a place has been provided for them, that they will be thankfully 
received, carefully and comfortably cared for, and exhibited under the name of the 
donor. 
It is in just this way that all such national collections are kept up. To-day the 
figures show that the Philadelphia Zoological Garden receives nearly three-fourths 
of its accessions as gifts. Already the United States Consul at Maracaibo, Venezuela, 
has written to the Secretary of State and offered to send jaguars, pumas, monkeys, 
and other objects innumerable to the national zoological garden which he hears is 
to be established here. Can it be doubted that nearly all our consuls would take 
pride in doing the same? Can it be doubted that any member’s constituents would 
rejoice at the establishment here of such a source of national pride, which he feels is 
free to him and his children forever, because it is partly his own? No one need fear 
that anyone will find fault with Congress if it appropriates this money. The news- 
papers of the country, from Boston to New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, 
and even far away San Francisco, say in so many words, ‘‘Give us a National Zoo! 
Give it to us before all our great game animals are exterminated.”’ 
The entire public is certainly behind the measure. There is no opposition to it in 
any quarter. The Smithsonian has been urged to further the end sought by this 
amendment. The plan challenges the closest scrutiny and invites criticism, for to 
know the details of the plan and the public need for this institution is to become an 
advocate of it. Every great nation on the earth, excepting this, has its national 
zoological garden, for the advancement of science and the instruction of the people. 
