Sweden: Kongliga Svenska Vetenskaps Akademien, Stockholm.

Switzerland: Service des Echanges Internationaux, Bibliothèque Fédérale Centrale, Bern.

Syria: Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, New York.

Tasmania: Royal Society of Tasmania, Hobart.

Transvaal: Government Library, Pretoria.

Trinidad: Victoria Institute, Port of Spain.

Tunis, via France.

Turkey: American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Boston. Uruguay: Oficina de Depósito, Reparto y Canje Internacional, Montevideo. Venezuela: Biblioteca Nacional, Caracas.

Victoria Public Library of Victoria, Melbourne.

Western Australia: Public Library of Western Australia, Perth.

Zanzibar. (Sent by mail.)

Dr. Cyrus Adler resigned his position as assistant secretary in charge of library and exchanges on September 30, 1908.

Respectfully submitted.

F. V. BERRY,

Chief Clerk, International Exchange Service.

Dr. CHARLES D. WALCOTT,

Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.

APPENDIX IV.

REPORT ON THE NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK.

SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report on the condition and operations of the National Zoological Park for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1909.

RESOURCES.

The entire support of the park was provided for by an item in the sundry civil act approved May 27, 1908, appropriating $95,000 for general purposes, including the purchase, transportation, care and maintenance of animals; the care and improvement of grounds; the construction and repair of all buildings, inclosures, roads, walks, and bridges. A sum of equal amount has been appropriated annually for several years past. The considerable increase in the prices of the necessary provisions and labor has made it increasingly difficult to do anything toward developing the park to the standard that such institutions usually attain at the capitals of great nations. The expenses of maintenance alone amounted to about $85,000, so it will be seen that there was but little margin left for additional works.

It should be remembered that at the inception of the park the funds provided for buildings and improvements were entirely inadequate for its proper equipment and that consequently the management was forced to construct cheap, temporary shelters, roads, walks, and inclosures. These have now arrived at about their limit of usefulness and do not admit of further economical repair. It is not for the interest of the Government to continue to erect structures of this class, and it would certainly be advantageous to have sufficient appropriations to replace them with satisfactory permanent buildings.

BUILDINGS AND INCLOSURES.

The principal improvements made during the year were the completion of a series of bear yards and the construction of a series of 10 new yards for wolves and foxes.

Bear yards.-Six yards of the series had been built up to the beginning of the year. During 1908-9 the terminal yard, 42 feet wide and 26 feet deep, at the east end of the series, was built, and the north end of the series was completed by the construction of three yards from 32 to 36 feet deep and 32, 24, and 40 feet wide, respectively. All of the yards have floors of rock and concrete except the large one at the north end, where most of the area has been left in the original hard clay over which is spread a thick layer of sand. A concrete walk 12 feet wide was constructed in front of all the new yards, and a trellis of steel bars was built over the walk and in front of the cages, over which vines will be trained, to afford shelter until trees are large enough to give sufficient shade. The cost of the work on the bear yards during the year was about $6,000. The steep bank adjoining the yards was graded and a macadam walk with stone steps was built to furnish a convenient approach.

58

The completion of the series of yards made it possible to transfer all of the bears from the temporary wooden cages that they have been occupying to their permanent quarters. The cages were then removed, and the area which they had occupied was graded and planted.

Wolf and fox yards. Since the occupation of the park the wolves and foxes have been kept in temporary yards near the lion house. This has been unsatisfactory in several respects, the yards being of an irregular and unsightly character, rather obtrusive, and not as secure as desirable. A better site for them was selected at the foot of the steep acclivity, where the stream from the beaver valley empties into Rock Creek. There were constructed here a series of ten yards having a total frontage of 230 feet, with a depth varying from 16 to 36 feet. The fence was constructed of heavy wire netting with square mesh, on steel posts, and has a height of 6 feet 6 inches. A retiring den for each yard was excavated in the hill at the rear of the cages and arranged with a door outside the inclosure for the keeper's use. These cages, as well as the bear yards, were completed and occupied in the late autumn of 1908.

An entirely pleasant feature of this site is its secluded, woodland character, enhanced by the little stream flowing down over rocks to the creek. Considerable planting was done here, using the material indigenous to the neighborhood in order to retain as far as possible the original character of the forest. The cost of this series of yards was about $2,600.

ROADS AND WALKS.

Lack of funds prevented the continued prosecution of the repair of roads and walks in the park, only such work being done as was absolutely necessary for the public safety. The Adams Mill road and part of the road along the banks of the creek were treated with a coal-tar product known as "terracolio," to obtain freedom from dust and prevent the washing of the roadbed during heavy rains. This was fairly successful. Some of the walks were treated with another coal-tar preparation known as tarvia." This, too, proved an excellent preventive of dust and abrasion.

The shaded walk and stairway from the Adams Mill entrance to the lower levels of the park was completed and a small rest house and shelter built at the upper end. It is believed that this walk can be made one of the most attractive features of the park. In spite of the careful watch, some difficulty is experienced in preventing the uprooting and carrying away by visitors of the ferns and other specimens that have been planted in profusion along its sides. The amount expended on the walk during the present year was about $700, while the rustic shelter, 20 by 25 feet, cost approximately $400.

ACCESSIONS AND LOSSES.

Gifts included 5 chamois from Bernese Oberland, received through the Department of the Interior from the Swiss Government as a gift to the United States Government; 3 young Alaskan brown bears from Mr. George Mixter, 2d, of Boston, Mass. ; 3 Barbados woolless sheep, from the United States Department of Agriculture; a large grizzly bear and female black bear with 2 cubs were received from Lieut. Gen. S. B. M. Young, superintendent Yellowstone National Park; also 2 mule deer and 2 prong-horn antelopes from Maj. H. C Benson, who succeeded General Young at the Yellowstone Park. Ten beavers were also obtained in the Yellowstone Park through the cooperation of General Young. A lioness, a pair of Sarus cranes, 2 European flamingoes, and a fishing cat were received in exchange for surplus animals.

Purchases included a pair of Rocky Mountain sheep, an Arabian camel, a reindeer from Alaska, a cassowary, 2 South American condors, 2 jabirus, etc. Births numbered 110, and included a Brazilian tapir, 3 American bison, a yak, 4 tigers, 2 black bears, a llama, 6 Barbary sheep, 17 deer of 6 species, kangaroos, armadillos, etc., also various birds.

The deaths included the Philippine water buffalo, which died from peritonitis resulting from the bursting of an abscess of the rumen; a young orang, which died from leukemia; and a leopard, which, also, died from peritonitis. A Rocky Mountain goat, which was deposited in the park, died thirty-seven days after its receipt, from tuberculosis, which evidently had been contracted while it was kept in confinement near the place of capture in British Columbia. An European flamingo, a crowned pigeon, and several other birds died from aspergillosis, and five storks from cercomonad roup.

One hundred and thirty-eight autopsies were made by the pathologists of the Bureau of Animal Industry and two by the Laboratory of Hygiene, which gave the following results:

The number of visitors to the park during the year was 564,639, a daily average of about 1,547. The largest number in any month was 127,635, in April, 1909, a daily average of 4,254.

During the year there visited the park 148 schools, Sunday schools, classes, etc., with 4,611 pupils, a monthly average of 384 pupils. While most of them were from the city and the immediate vicinity, 25 of the schools were from neighboring States, and classes came from Lowell, Warren, Boston, Fall River, and Dover, Mass.; Portland, Augusta, and Auburn, Me.; and Wallingford, Vt.

NEEDS OF THE PARK.

Aquarium.-The present building was originally a hay shed of ordinary Virginia pine lumber. It is now in a most dilapidated condition, the foundation