REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 59 



continually flowing over us at a high elevation, carries most of the 

 disturbances of the atmosphere eastward. It would also include the 

 effects produced'by the polar and equatorial currents as they contend 

 for the mastery along the broad valley which stretches without inter- 

 ruption from the arctic circle to the Gulf of Mexico, and would settle 

 with precision the influence of the great fresh-water lakes in amelio- 

 rating the climate of the adjacent regions. But above all, in a popu- 

 lar view, it would furnish the means more effectually than any other 

 system of predicting the approach of storms and of giving the ships 

 of our Atlantic coast due warning of the probability of danger. 



Collections. — In the preceding reports an important distinction has 

 been made between the collections of the Institution intended for 

 the immediate advance and diffusion of a knowledge of natural his- 

 tory, and the museum intended for popular exhibition; while the for- 

 mer is in strict conformity with the catholic spirit of the bequest, 

 and can be prosecuted in due relation to the various other branches 

 of knowledge, having each an equal claim on the bounty of the fund, 

 the latter is principally local in its character, and demands a per- 

 petual outlay of a portion of the annual income, which tends contin- 

 ually to increase with the additions to the number of objects exhib- 

 ited, and finally to absorb all the resources of the establishment. 

 Although the museum has been principally restricted to the mainte- 

 nance and exhibition of the articles of the exploring expeditions of the 

 government, and to such type specimens as might serve to illustrate 

 the publications of the Institution, yet its cost has exceeded that of 

 all the active operations which have rendered the name of Smith- 

 son favorably known in every part of the- civilized world. This 

 statement will not be thought incorrect when it is considered that to 

 its account may justly be charged the absorption of the annual inter- 

 est of the money expended on the building, a sum which will now 

 be greatly enhanced by the cost of the restoration. 



I have thought it important to refer to this point in almost every 

 annual report, in order that what I deem a fundamental policy of 

 the Institution should be kept constantly in view, namely, the preser- 

 vation of the income of the Smithsonian fund as untrammelled as possi- 

 ble, and free to be applied to assist in the solution of any scientific 

 problem which may present itself, or in any other way to extend the 

 present bounds of human knowledge. A well replenished purse, un- 

 * incumbered with debt and free to be applied to any purpose, is a 

 source of power as important to an establishment for the advance or 

 diffusion of knowledge as it is to an individual. 



