REVIEWS OF RECENT LITERATURE. 201 
In considering the special lines of work of the institution most 
interesting to naturalists, we may refer briefly to the National 
Museum, the Bureau of Ethnology, the Exchange System, the 
Zoological Park, and Explorations. 
The museum was a cherished feature of the “ National Institute.” 
It had been given charge of the collection of the Wilkes’ Expedition, 
1838, and when it broke up, this collection and the others it pos- 
sessed passed to the Smithsonian Institution. The exploration of 
the Territories and donations from foreign governments and from 
travelers soon swelled the collections enormously, so that now a 
special congressional appropriation of over $180,000 per annum is 
required to maintain them. 
The Bureau of Ethnology, which had its germ in Major Powell’s 
explorations of the canyons of the Colorado and of this whole river 
basin, 1867-69, and had passed an embryonic existence under the 
“ Geographical and Geological Survey of the Territories,” was born 
as a distinct bureau when the Geological Surveys were reorganized 
in 1879. 
The System of International Exchanges was proposed by Henry, 
1847, in his original plan of organization. Originally it related only 
to the exchange of government publications ; but later the service 
was extended to the international exchange of publications between 
scientific societies or between societies and individuals. This work 
has grown so that it now requires a special congressional appropria- 
tion of $17,000 per annum. 
The National Zoological Park, which originated over ten years ago 
in Secretary Langley’s desire that the National Museum should pos- 
sess living animals, now includes 166 acres in the suburbs of Wash- 
ington. While the great expense of its maintenance precludes its 
rapid growth, it is believed to be already an important safeguard 
against the utter extinction of several species of mammals. 
As for explorations, the Smithsonian Institution has codperated in 
all those of the government since 1846 and has granted subsidies to _ 
some private ones, The decade preceding 1856 was very fertile in 
government surveys. Among these may be mentioned the survey of 
Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, etc., by Owen, of the Lake Superior 
region by Jackson and Whitney, of Oregon by Evans; the survey of 
the boundary between the United States and Mexico, and later 
of the Gadsen Purchase; the Pacific Railroad surveys along the 
47th parallel, the 41st parallel, the 38th and 39th parallels, the 35th 
parallel, the 32d parallel, in California, and in Northern California 
