Annual Meeting.] 
248 
[May 1, 
a financial success which would enable us to balance the deficien- 
cies if any occurred in the budget of the Zoological Garden and in 
course of time and together with our invested funds secure this de- 
partment against any chance of failure until it could be made self- 
supporting. The reasons commonly given for this opinion are as 
follows. The Pier at the Marine Park, South Boston, is already 
the resort of a very large and annually increasing multitude which 
seek its coolness during the summer months. The report of the 
special officer at the pier shows that the attendance of the public 
last year, though the attractions were very much less than they will 
ultimately be', amounted to between one and three thousand on week 
days, and on clear Sundays and holidays from ten thousand to fifty 
thousand. The Marine Aquarial Gardens, with such a stream of hu- 
manity flowing past its doors, could hardly fail to pay a large per- 
centage of profit on all outlays, and thus help on the other branches 
of the Society’s exhibits. 
These remarks are not in any sense authoritative because no ac- 
tion has yet been taken by the council which commits the Society 
to this scheme of exhibits, and it is merely intended to give some 
information of the possibilities now opening before the Society in 
consequence of its vote for the establishment of Natural History 
Gardens. It only remains to add, that a definite plan is now being 
prepared by order of the Council and will be published probably in 
the form of a letter to the Park Commissioners. The sub-commit- 
tee having this matter in charge had hoped to accomplish this in 
time for the present annual meeting, but, although every member 
of that committee has been doing his duty to the fullest extent this 
has not proved to be practicable. 
Last spring a lady interested in the study of natural history ex- 
pressed her desire to do something for the purpose of making the 
meaning of the exhibition collections more apparent to the public, 
especially to children. This finally resulted in the employment of 
a young gentleman as guide who served very acceptably but unfor- 
tunately for us soon received an appointment as teacher in a col- 
lege in New York State. We employed a younger though well- 
educated person and again met with marked success for a time, but 
by an unfortunate accident the museum suddenly lost the benefit of 
the second employee’s services just as they were beginning to be val- 
uable. A third gentleman has been obtained and is now serving as 
