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INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES.

The International Exchange Service was inaugurated in 1849, when Volume I of the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge was distributed to 173 foreign institutions, and within a few years it became the medium for the exchange of publications between the principal scientific institutions of the world. The functions of this Service being "the diffusion of knowledge" are in direct accord with one of the fundamental objects for which the Smithsonian Institution was endowed, and the fact that exchanges are now made with 28,000 correspondents in every part of the civilized world demonstrates to some degree the far-reaching influence of the Institution. The weight of matter handled by the Service during the past fiscal year was 247,444 pounds, comprising 81,162 packages of publications. From 1886 to 1895 there were received from foreign Governments and institutions 344,078 books or pamphlets, and 601,637 books or pamphlets were shipped abroad.

The entire cost of international exchanges prior to 1881 was borne by the Smithsonian Institution, but for the last fifteen years appropriations have been made by Congress. The first grant, in 1881, was $3,000, and for the past year it was $19,000. The exchange of Government documents is a most important part of the service, and I may repeat the statement made in several previous reports that for the continuation of such exchanges the Smithsonian Institution has annually advanced varying amounts in excess of the Congressional appropriations, so that the aggregate amount advanced from the private funds of the Institution since the Government has appropriated money for international exchanges is about $46,000.

The service now provides for the distribution of the United States Government publications to foreign libraries, and also for the distribution of books, pamphlets, and other printed matter sent as exchanges or donations from literary and scientific societies or individuals to correspondents abroad, without expense to senders beyond delivery at the Smithsonian Institution. Publications are received at the several foreign agencies of the Institution and forwarded to Washington for record and are distributed under the Smithsonian frank, the entire service being conducted under a careful system of registration which well nigh precludes possibility of loss. Purchased books, apparatus and instruments, are not received for transmission through the service, which is exclusively limited to donations or exchanges.

Through the long-extended courtesies from several ocean transportation companies, permitting the free transmission of exchange packages, it has been feasible to carry on the work in a very much more comprehensive manner than would otherwise have been possible with the resources available.

I may mention that exchanges with Mexico and Japan, which were temporarily interrupted at the time of my last report, have been renewed. Exchanges with Turkey, Greece, and Cuba, have necessarily

been entirely suspended, although there is near prospect of renewed communications with the former country.

The international exchange of official documents has aggregated 10,694 parcels received from foreign countries for various Departments of the United States Government, and 30,008 packages have been received from United States Government Departments and shipped abroad.

This branch of the service is naturally of most importance to the Government, the foreign receipts having resulted in building up a very complete collection of publications of the various governments of the world.

The total amount available for use of the service during the year was $22,334.33, which included the Congressional appropriation of $19,000 and $3,334.33 received from various Executive Departments for transmission of their outgoing and incoming exchanges.

The slight increase in the annual appropriation granted by Congress during the past year for improving the facilities for the transportation of exchanges has permitted an improvement in the promptness of dispatch by the payment of ocean freight on a portion of the exchanges, which have been forwarded by some of the faster steamers instead of necessarily delaying shipments until opportunity permitted free transmission by later vessels. This slight improvement has benefited the service to such an extent that it is hoped Congress will realize the benefits derived from expenditures of this character, and in future will appropriate sufficient means to enable all exchanges to be forwarded to their destination without interruption. A great deal of matter forwarded through the International Exchanges is most valuable at the time of publication, and there should be no impediment to prompt delivery.

The number of correspondents at present on the records of the exchange service is 28,008, of which 21,427 are foreign-an increase of 2,527 over last year-and 6,581 are domestic, being an increase over 1896 of 567.

Appended to my report for the year ended June 30, 1895, was a map of the world showing the relative extent of the exchange service. Since that time the far-reaching influence of the service has added so many correspondents, and so many more remote countries have been reached, that the preparation of a new map to more nearly represent the number of correspondents in each country will soon be necessary.

THE NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK.

I have always been of the opinion that the collection of living animals is a legitimate method of furthering the objects for which the Smithsonian Institution was established. It was inevitable that sooner or later an intelligent interest in such collections should be awakened

in this country, and some small collections have, in fact, for many years existed; but I believe that the Regents of the Institution were the first to consider the national importance of the preservation of the great American fauna, and with that object in view to recognize the need of establishing a preserve for their care and maintenance like the National Zoological Park, action in this matter being all the more imperative in view of the imminence of the extermination of many species of American animals, particularly the bison of our Great Plains.

It gives me pleasure to state that this interest in living animals has during the last few years greatly increased in this country, as is shown by the many new collections that have been established and the fact that still others are projected. A number of private individuals have undertaken the preservation of animals, paying particular attention to those likely to become extinct or that are best adapted to be kept on a range or in a forest. I can not but feel that the example of the National Zoological Park has been of some value in stimulating such enterprises, and that, though as yet comparatively incomplete, it has tended to develop an interest in our native animals and in their proper protection and preservation.

As instances of what has been done in this way may be mentioned the large forest park of the late Mr. Austin Corbin, the game preserves that have been established in various parts of the country, and the extensive zoological collections planned for the city of Pittsburg, Pa., and for the New York Zoological Society near New York City. Details with regard to some of these parks are given in the appendix. Attention is called here to these enterprises because it seems desiraable that an institution of this kind, placed at the seat of Government and under its control and direction, should be representative in character and not fall below the average of such collections, either at home or abroad.

It should be noted in this connection that most cities of the size of Washington are well provided with public parks possessing improvements in the way of roads, walks, bridges, buildings for public comfort, lawns, and plantations far in excess of what is possible under the present circumstances in the National Zoological Park. A moderate estimate, made by experienced landscape gardeners, places the cost of such desirable improvements at $3,000 per acre at least. Yet all that is here allowed for these purposes is the small sum that can be reserved after properly caring for the animals and erecting such structures as are required for their needs. While in most establishments of this kind the municipal authorities defray from a separate fund all the expenses of preparing the grounds and buildings and properly policing and maintaining the same, here all must be paid from a general sum that is not more than sufficient to merely maintain the animals in a proper condition.

The buildings and inclosures now existing are plainly inadequate.

One of the most important needs is the establishment of suitable houses for the preservation and care of birds. There should be a large building that could be heated in winter, and in addition a spacious flying cage similar to that used in the Golden Gate Park, in San Francisco,. in which large numbers of our native birds could be harbored and fed. This would enable the park to extend its scope to the species of native birds now threatened with extinction. The passenger pigeon, once found in astonishing numbers throughout the Northern United States, has nearly disappeared because of the slaughter of the species by man,1 and the Carolina parrakeet, a bird of most beautiful plumage, is already becoming scarce. At present it is impossible to take advantage of numerous opportunities of obtaining specimens of birds, as they can not be properly cared for within the park. Other buildings urgently The following extract from Audubon's Birds of America may be of interest: "The multitudes of wild pigeons in our woods are astonishing. Indeed, after having viewed them so often and under so many circumstances, I even now feel inclined to pause and assure myself that what I am going to relate is fact. Yet I have seen it all, and that, too, in the company of persons who, like myself, were struck with amazement.

"In the autumn of 1813 I left my house at Henderson, on the banks of the Ohio, on my way to Louisville. In passing over the barrens a few miles beyond Hardensburg, I observed the pigeons flying from northeast to southwest in greater numbers than I thought I had ever seen them before, and feeling an inclination to count the flocks that might pass within the reach of my eye in one hour, I dismounted, seated myself on an eminence, and began to mark with my pencil, making a dot for every flock that passed. In a short time, finding the task which I had undertaken impracticable, as the birds poured in in countless multitudes, I rose, and, counting the dots then put down, found that 163 had been made in twenty-one minutes. I traveled on, and still met more the farther I proceeded. The air was literally filled with pigeons; the light of noonday was obscured as by an eclipse; the dung fell in spots, not unlike melting flakes of snow, and the continued buzz of wings had a tendency to lull my senses to repose.

"Whilst waiting for dinner at Young's Inn, at the confluence of Salt River with the Ohio, I saw, at my leisure, immense legions still going by, with a front reaching far beyond the Ohio on the west and the beech-wood forests directly on the east of me. Not a single bird alighted, for not a nut or acorn was that year to be seen in the neighborhood. They consequently flew so high that different trials to reach them with a capital rifle proved ineffectual, nor did the reports disturb them in the least. I can not describe to you the extreme beauty of their aerial evolutions when a hawk chanced to press upon the rear of a flock. At once, like a torrent, and with a noise like thunder, they rushed into a compact mass, pressing upon each other toward the center. In these almost solid masses they darted forward in undulating and angular lines, descended and swept close over the earth with inconceivable velocity, mounted perpendicularly, so as to resemble a vast column, and, when high, were seen wheeling and twisting within their continued lines, which then resembled the coils of a gigantic serpent.

"Before sunset I reached Louisville, distant from Hardensburg 55 miles. The pigeons were still passing in undiminished numbers, and continued to do so for three days in succession. The people were all in arms. The banks of the Ohio were crowded with men and boys incessantly shooting at the pilgrims, which there flew lower as they passed the river. Multitudes were thus destroyed. For a week or more the population fed on no other flesh than that of pigeons and talked of nothing but pigeons."

needed are a new elephant house, in place of the hastily constructed temporary shelter now used, and a reptile house.

Many most interesting and at the same time inexpensive features, such as a vivarium for small animals, a small house and a runway for pheasants, and ponds for aquatic birds and mammals, are necessarily deferred for want of the funds required for their installation.

The appropriation for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1897, was in the following terms:

National Zoological Park: For continuing the construction of roads, walks, bridges, water supply, sewerage and drainage, and for grading, planting, and otherwise improving the grounds; erecting and repairing buildings and inclosures, care, subsistence, transportation of animals, including salaries or compensation of all necessary employees, and general incidental expenses not otherwise provided for, sixty-seven thousand dollars; one-half of which sum shall be paid from the revenues of the District of Columbia and the other half from the Treasury of the United States; and of the sum hereby appropriated, five thousand dollars shall be used for continuing the entrance into the Zoological Park from Woodley Lane, and opening driveway into Zoological Park, from said entrance along the bank of Rock Creek, and five thousand dollars shall be used toward the construction of a road from the Holt Mansion entrance (on Adams Mill road) into the park to connect with roads now in existence, including a bridge across Rock Creek.

It will be noted that a considerable portion of the sum appropriated is for the improvement of certain specified roads within the park and for the construction of a new bridge in connection therewith. Accordingly, a great part of the time that could be devoted to the improvement of the grounds has been spent in the development of these works. A narrow but sufficient roadway has been constructed along the line formerly occupied by the cart path known as the Adams Mill road and continued onward to the sharp bend in the stream near the animal house of the park, where an inexpensive but picturesque rustic bridge has been placed. This plan was deemed preferable to the building of a wide driveway with a high bridge that would be very costly, far beyond the scope of any appropriations to be expected from Congress, and likely at the same time to be an intrusion in the peaceful quiet of the valley, which it would span for some hundreds of feet.

A view of the bridge as finally erected is shown in the appendix. The foundation at either end rests upon the rock, and the main structure is formed of an arch of heavy oak logs solidly bolted together. The strength of the structure is far greater than is required for the amount of travel that may be expected over it, but not more than is needed to withstand the force of freshets that occur from time to time in the turbulent stream. A satisfactory result was reached at comparatively small expense, and though the superstructure will undoubtedly be in danger during times of great floods, it is believed that the foundation will always remain uninjured, so that even if the bridge is carried away, it can be renewed at slight cost.

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