REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 27 



It is well to direct attention to the fact that Congress has as yet made 

 no special appropriation for the care of these animals, which, with their 

 food, represents a considerable sum, ill spared from the limited appro- 

 priation at the disposal of the Secretary for the increase and preserva- 

 tion of the collections, on which so many other pressing demands are 

 made. 



ZOOLOGICAL PARK. 



In my previous report I stated that a bill had been introduced by 

 Senator Beck to create, under the care of the Regents of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, a zoological garden on Rock Creek, where these animals 

 might not only form the subject of study, but be expected to increase 

 as they do not in ordinary captivity ; and I gave the amendment to the 

 sundry civil appropriation bill, reported by Senator Morrill, which 

 was substantially the same as the bill of Senator Beck. 



For reasons which may be found in my letter to the chairman of the 

 Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, quoted later, I gave much 

 time and labor in the interests of this measure, at first without success* 

 the House Committee on Appropriations having reported its non-concur- 

 rence iu the Zoological Park amendment, and, after a long debate, which 

 occupied the attention of the House through a considerable portion of 

 the 12th of September, 1888, the motion to concur was defeated. In 

 the subsequent conference on the sundry civil bill, the Senate con- 

 ferees agreed that the amendment should be stricken out, so that the 

 bill was lost. 



In pursuance of what seemed to me a public duty, I did not accept 

 this defeat of the bill as final, but brought the matter again before the 

 attention of Congress. 



On the 18th of January, IS 89, at the request of the Hon. S. Dibble ? . 

 I addressed a letter to him as chairman of the Committee on Public 

 Buildings and Grouuds, to which had been referred a bill of the House,, 

 introduced by the Hon. W. C. P. Breckinridge, of similar purport to 

 that introduced iu the Senate. This letter the committee made the basis- 

 of its recommendation for the passage of the bill in the following words i 



REPORT to accompany bill H. R. 11810. 



The Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, to which was re- 

 ferred the bill (H. R. 11810) "for the establishment of a Zoological 

 Park in the District of Columbia," having had the same under consid- 

 eration, respectfully submits the following report: 



Appended hereto is a letter of Prof. S. P. Langley, Secretary of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, portraying the necessity of such a park and 

 the advantages to be derived from its establishment; and, for reasons 

 therein set forth, your committee respectfully recommends the passage 

 of the bill. 



Smithsonian Institution, 

 Washington, D. C, January 18, 1889. 



My Dear Sir : I write what follows in accordance with the sugges- 

 tion of your yesterday's letter, intending it for your cousideratiou and 

 that of the committee. 



