“2716 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 
devoted to them, and the remainder of the material is stowed away in 
drawers and packing boxes. 7 
The magnificent mounted groups of the larger animals of America, 
unsurpassed by anything of the kind in the world, are now so crowded 
together in the midst of other collections that they are scarcely visible, | 
and some of which are packed away. 
A considerable portion of the collection of the great fossil vertebrate 
animals of North America, of which there is a magnificent series, is now 
stored in the basement of the museum at Yale College for lack of room 
to receive it here, although it is much needed by the geologists of the 
Geological Survey for purposes of study. 
Another hall is needed which might well be devoted to economic 
geology, illustrating the wonderful material wealth of our country and 
its utilization; and still another is needed “to illustrate the material 
resources of the country, classified by States. With the present accom- 
modations the materials and ores of each State are confined to one or 
two small cases. A hall of proper extent, arranged upon this geo- 
graphical plan, would be one of the most impressive displays of the 
kind to be seen anywhere in the world. 
The building devoted especially to the Museum was erected after the 
Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, as a temporary accommodation 
for the collections given to the United States by the foreign govern- 
ments and private exhibitors represented on that occasion. It is the 
cheapest public building of a permanent character ever erected, having 
cost only $2.25 a square foot of floor space available for exhibition. | 
The museum buildings in Central Park, New York, have cost from 
$30 to $40 a square foot. 
The building in Washington has served a good purpose, but is defi. 
cient in one of the most important particulars; it has no cellars what- 
ever, and very little provision for workshops and laboratories. In 
consequence of this it has been necessary to use all kinds of devices for 
storing material which can not be exhibited in the exhibition halls in 
the bases under the-exhibition cases, in small recesses, so ingeniously 
contrived that their presence is not suspected. It has been necessary 
to do this, but the result has been to still further increase the crowded 
condition. 
Another disagreeable result is that much noisy work has to be done 
in the Museum halls in spaces shut off from the public by screens, and 
that when preparations for exhibitions or unpacking are*going on, not 
only are a portion of the collections closed to the public, but there isa 
constant and unpleasant noise of hammers. 
A temporary relief was secured some years ago by placing the great 
herbarium, one of the most important collections of American plants 
in the world, in the custody of the Agricultural Department; but last 
year the Secretary of Agriculture found himself unable to longer give 
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