THIRTY-FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT. 



To the Trustees and Members of the American Museum of Natural 

 History : 



The President submits herewith a report of the affairs of 

 the Museum for the year 1903. 



Finances. — In conformity with the recommendations of 

 the Board of Trustees, the financial transactions of the 

 Museum are divided into three separate accounts, and the de- 

 tails of the receipts, expenditures and investments for the 

 year just closed, as embodied in the Treasurer's Report, will 

 be found on pages 37 to 43 inclusive. These accounts and 

 all books and vouchers have been duly examined and certified 

 to by the Audit Company of New York. A few statements 

 may help in making the details of this report clear. 



The Permanent Endowment — four hundred and forty 

 thousand dollars — -is far too small to approximate the needs of 

 an institution doing the work that is attempted by the Museum. 

 Although since the last annual meeting five thousand dollars 

 has been added to this fund, the time has certainly arrived 

 when the need of an endowment of at least one million dollars 

 is urgently felt. This urgency is the more pronounced because 

 of our peculiar relations with the City, the appropriations of 

 which cannot be used for the purchase of specimens, for explor- 

 ing expeditions or for the publication of scientific results. 



Special Funds. — The Assistant Treasurer has continued to 

 act as Treasurer of the Eastern Asiatic Research Fund and of 

 the Andrew J. Stone Expedition Fund. Both of these funds, 

 as originally provided, will soon be exhausted. The results 

 of Dr. Laufer's explorations in China and the interest that 

 several friends of the Museum have taken in him and 

 his work are such as to encourage the belief that these 

 researches will not be suspended. Mr. Stone's work among 

 the arctic mammals of Alaska and British Columbia has 



