REPORT of the 

 PROVINCIAL MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 



FOR THE YEAR 1922. 



By Francis Kermode, Director. 



OBJECTS. 



(a.) To secure and preserve specimens illustrating the natural history of the Province. 

 (&.) To collect anthropological material relating to the aboriginal races of the Province, 

 (c.) To ohtain information respecting the natural sciences, relating particularly to the 

 natural history of the Province, and diffuse knowledge regarding the same. 



ADMISSION. 



The Provincial Museum is open, free, to the public daily throughout the year from 9 a.m. to 

 5 p.m. (except New Year's Day, Good Friday, and Christmas Day) ; it is also open on Sunday 

 afternoons from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. from May 1st until the end of October. 



VISITORS. 



The actual number of visitors whose names are recorded on the register of the Museum is 

 21,307, against 22,550 in last year's report. This does not by any means give the total number 

 of visitors throughout the year, as not only have more visitors been noticed, but the attendance 

 of school classes has greatly increased, while the classes from the Normal School have used the 

 collections considerably in regard to making drawings in connection with their nature-studies. 

 I would recommend that a turnstile or some other way of recording the number of visitors 

 accurately be installed. The following figures will give some idea of those who recorded their 

 names during the months of: January, 69S; February, S72; March, 945; April, 1,057; May, 

 1,231; June, 2,131; July, 4,561; August, 4,S30; September, 2,377; October, 1,135; November, 

 780; December, 660. 



ACTIVITIES. 



In last year's report it was mentioned that the Public Works Department had completed the 

 basement, and the carpenter having made four extra cases for the display of exhibits, all the 

 anthropological material which had for a number of years been exhibited on the main floor in 

 the northern section of the exhibition halls was transferred to its new quarters. Four other 

 cases are in the course of preparation, and a temporary arrangement has been made to exhibit 

 the specimens until the four cases are completed and the extra two rooms available for the 

 display »f exhibits, making a total of six rooms in the anthropological halls. It is hoped to have 

 this completed early in the spring and the collection will then be labelled and arranged as a 

 permanent exhibit, as there is no more space available in the present building. 



A temporary arrangement of these specimens was made in the spring of 1922, and the formal 

 opening of the exhibition halls to the public was inaugurated by a special meeting of the Natural 

 History Society of British Columbia, held in the Provincial Museum on May 29th, 1922, when an 

 illustrated lecture was given by the Director on the " Early Customs and Life of the Aboriginal 

 Races of this Province," which Avas well attended by the members of the society and their friends. 

 The lecture was given on the main floor, the mammals in cases and other specimens being moved 

 to one side so as to give as much space as possible for those who attended. The Department is 

 handicapped, as in the construction of the present building there is no room available for 

 scientific lectures of this kind for the general public, although offers to give lectures have been 

 received from different scientists who have visited the Department from time to time. 



Mr. Harlan I. Smith, Anthropologist of the Dominion Government, Ottawa, also gave a 

 lecture in the Museum on September 14th, 1922, upon his return from his explorations in the 

 Bella Coola country, where he has been doing anthropological research-work for the last three 

 summers. His lecture, "The Relationship of Museum Work to Education," was given on the 



