6 ■ EEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



not to carry on "vvork that could be done elsewhere, have been allowed 

 to establish themselves independent!}'', chief among which are the 

 United States Weather Bureau, the Geological Surve3^ and the Fish 

 Commission. Other establishments, as the National Museum, the 

 ]kireau of American Ethnology, the International Exchanges, and 

 the National Zoological Park, have continued under the direction of 

 the Institution. It led the way in the organization of library work in 

 the United States ; it took the initial steps and continues to support 

 schemes for international cataloguing, and it maintains a benevolent 

 relation with the American Historical Association and the National 

 Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, 



The results of all important investigations and the operations 

 of the Institution and its dependencies are reported upon constantly. 

 Its publications, which include more than 250 volumes, are to b'e 

 found in all the important libraries of the world, and some of them 

 on the work table of every scientific student. Through the agency of 

 the International Exchange Sj^stem, these works, together with other 

 public documents and learned treatises, are distributed throughout the 

 civilized world, and the foreign works received in exchange are 

 invaluable in American scientific libraries. 



Thus the Smithsonian Institution is in constant association with 

 the Government and all the public institutions of the United States. 

 To them the Institution holds out a friendly cooperation, its aim 

 being, while continuing its own work upon its accepted lines and 

 adapting them to new needs as occasion arises, to continue along the 

 established policy of preventing rivalries, promoting wise cooper- 

 ation, diminishing waste, and furthering the search for knowledge, 

 the recording of discovered truth, and its dissemination among the 

 people. 



In this great work the individual is not lost sight of; the publi- 

 cations of the Institution are Avidelv distributed, its library constitutes 

 an important part of the Library of Congress, and its museum is the 

 rarest in existence in many branches of the natural history and eth- 

 nology of the New AVorld. Less imposing than these methods of 

 serving the public, but no less important, is the satisfaction of a con- 

 stant stream of inquirers, w4iose letters from every corner of the 

 country bring questions bearing on every branch of knowledge. 



BUILDINGS. 



The only important building operation carried on during the past 

 year, of course excepting the work on the new Museum building, was 

 the construction of a mortuary chapel to contain the tomb of James 

 Smithson, brought from Italy. 



