REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 7 



tor several years past occupied in part by the U. S. Fish Commission, 

 as a fish-hatching station, was assigned to this Commission for head- 

 quarters. It has been refitted as an office building, and is now almost 

 entirely relinquished by the Museum, four apartments on the third floor 

 being retained for the use of a part of the Museum taxidermists. 



From the inadequate exposition of our needs just made, it will be 

 apparent that an extensive additional building is needed, if only for 

 storage, and where purposes of immediate exhibition are not in ques- 

 tion. 



Irrespective of the construction of this proposed building, however, 

 I beg to urge the necessity of improving the lighting of the second floor 

 of the main hall of the Smithsonian building, and more particularly the 

 indispensability of fire-proofing the west wing, which I have already 

 urged upon the attention of the Regents, and concerning the latter of 

 which, one of their number, Senator Morrill, introduced a bill in the 

 Senate on June 12, 1888, which is referred to in my last report, and on 

 which no further action has been taken by Congress. 



In regard to erections of minor importance, it may be mentioned that 

 it is intended to put up a small wooden building of one story, of a tem- 

 porary character, immediately south of the main building, as a cover 

 for the instruments, which at the same time will render it possible to 

 make certain observations pending the building of the proposed physi- 

 cal observatory, and this is more particularly alluded to under the fol- 

 lowing head of Eesearch. 



RESEARCH. 



In my last report I spoke of the preparations made by the late Secre- 

 tary for securing an astro-physical observatory and laboratory of re- 

 search, and I mentioned that through his action some friends of the 

 Institution had already offered to give the means for the erection of 

 the simple structure needed for the accommodation of such a special ob- 

 servatory. I added that the site would necessarily be suburban on ac- 

 count of the special need of seclusion and the absence of tremor in the 

 soil. 



I have elsewhere referred to the collections of the Institution in con- 

 nection with the purchase by Congress of a zoological park, which it 

 would appear to have been the first intent of Congress to place under 

 the care of the Regents. It had been my hope in that case to place this 

 observatory somewhere in the park, but in view of the long delay which 

 has already arisen, and of the indefinite further delay which may occur, 

 I have thought it better to put a wooden structure of the simplest and 

 most temporary character in grounds immediately south of the Institu- 

 tion, although this site is quite unsuitable for a permanent building. 

 Such a shelter will probably be erected before the coming winter, and 

 will, while serving as a store-house for the apparatus, enable observa- 

 tions to be commenced. 



