82 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888 



islands were also visited with a view to collecting specimens illustrat- 

 ing the fauna, flora, and geology of the regions. The collectors were 

 very successful. They secured about two hundred bird-skins, a large 

 series of birds' eggs and nests, fishes, mammal skins and skeletons, 

 marine invertebrates, fossils, x^lants, rocks, and copper ores. 



Interesting collections were received from Mr. Charles H. Townsend, 

 who visited Central America by direction of the U. S. Commissioner 

 of Fish and Fisheries. The material obtained included plants, a collec- 

 tion of bird-skins numbering over three hundred specimens, a collection 

 of tropical insects, a small collection of mammal skins, skulls, and 

 skeletons, bird skeletons, birds' nests, fishes, reptiles, stone implements, 

 and twenty-seven ethnological objects. 



K.— EFFORT UPON THE PAETICIPATION OF THE SMITH- 

 SONIAN INSTITUTION IN THE INDUSTRIAL EXPOSI- 

 TION AT MINNEAPOLIS, 1887. 



By William V. Cox. 



In accordance with joint resolution No. 18, which authorized the sev- 

 eral Executive Departments of the Government to lend to the Minne- 

 apolis Industrial Exposition of 1887 certain articles for exhibit. Dr. G. 

 Brown Goode, Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, in 

 charge of the National Museum, being unable himself to leave his offi- 

 cial post, appointed W. V. Cox, chief clerk of the National Museum, 

 representative to the Exposition. A copy of the letter making this ap- 

 pointment is given herewith, and also a copy of joint resolution No. 18. 



f Public Rrsolution No. 18.] 



JOINT RESOLTJTIOiSr authorizing the several Executive Departments of the Government to loan 

 to the Minneapolis Industrial Exposition certain articles for exhibit. 



Resolved iy the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in 

 Congress assembled, That it is desirable, in any way consistent with existing laws and 

 without risk to Government property or expense to the National Treasury, to encour- 

 age the effort being made for the opening and holding of a grand industrial and edu- 

 cational exposition of the Northwest at the city of Minneapolis, in the State of Min- 

 nesota, and the interests of the whole northwestern section of our country demand it 

 to be made an unqualified success; and it be, and is hereby, approved that the heads 

 of the several Executive Departments shall, in whatever respects they may in their 

 judgment see convenient and proper, loan any articles or material suitable to such 

 Ijurpose: Provided, That such loan be made entirely on the responsibility of said Min- 

 neapolis Industrial Exposition, and shall not be of material needed for use in either 

 Department, and shall not in any way interrupt the daily routine of duly or order 

 in any branch of the G-overnment, and shaU be returned to the proper Department, 

 in good order, within one month after the close of the exposition : And provided further, 

 That before any such loan shall be made, the ]3roper head of the Department shall 

 require and receive a good and sufficient bond, by or in behalf of such exposition, for 

 the safe return thereof as aforesaid, and to indemnify and save harmless the Govern- 

 ment of the United States, or any Department thereof, from any liability or expense 

 on account thereof, or on account of this resolution. 



Approved March 3, 1887. 



