APPENDIX TO THE REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 75 



2. National Museum, under the direction of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion. — In the museum section were shown collections illustrating the 

 economical mineral wealth of the United States, in a series of ores of 

 the precious and baser metals and their metallurgy, including specimens 

 of the metals and their simple applications ; the materials used iu the 

 manufacture of glass, such as sand, soda, &c. ; and the earth and clays, 

 with their applications in tiles, terra-cotta, bricks, and pottery ; the 

 different varieties of coal, petroleum ; samples of the principal build- 

 ing stones, as marble, granite, &c. 



The animal section contained, first, representations of the animals of 

 the United States of economical importance to the country, as furnish- 

 ing food, ivory, bone, leather, glue, furs, bristles, oil, &c. ; second, the 

 apparatus by which these animals are pursued and captured ; third, the 

 means by which they are utilized for the wants or luxuries of man when 

 taken ; fourth, specimens of the products of such utilization and their 

 simple applications ; and, fifth, the methods by which they are protected 

 and multiplied. 



H. — The United States Fish Commission. 



In this was shown a series of models in plaster or papier-mache of 

 the principal fishes and cretaceans of the United States, and photographs 

 and original drawings of the same, as furnishing oil, bone or manure, 

 together with the apparatus of pursuits and capture ; models of boats 

 of different styles of construction, and special illustrations of the whale- 

 fishery. Also the methods of fish-culture, in illustrations of hatching- 

 boxes, carrying- vessels, models of fish- ways, &c. This display and that 

 of the animal department of the Smithsonian exhibit were more or less 

 united, and illustrated not only the methods and appliances of civilized 

 man in this connection, but also those of the American savage. 



Public opinion in regard to the Government exhibit. — As already re- 

 marked, the officers in charge of the Government exhibit were unable 

 to make it as complete as they had hoped, on account of the reduced 

 appropriation for the purpose ; but as it was, it was considered by all 

 visitors as decidedly the best part of the International Exhibition, in 

 view of the extent and exhaustiveness of the collection and the method 

 and order of its display. 



No special catalogue of the Government exhibits was printed, au- 

 thority not having been obtained from Congress for the purpose, al- 

 though a very full catalogue had been prepared. 



The building was constantly the resort of intelligent visitors from all 

 parts of the world, and a great many critical reports have been pub- 

 lished already in foreign journals in regard to this display. Professor 

 Archer, one of the chief commissioners from Great Britain, in a lecture 

 recently delivered before the Society of Arts in London, uses the fol- 

 lowing language, in speaking of the United States Government building 

 and its annexes : 



