Deposit of savings from income Avery fund, 1915_ Deposit of balance of principal $248.05 and income $28.39 Rhees Deposit of first payment of Lucy T. and George W. Poore fund, 1915 Total of fund deposited in the United States Treasury. Other resources. Registered and guaranteed bonds of the West Shore Railroad Total permanent fund_. $1,862. 60 426. 04 276. 44 24, 534.92 987, 600.00 42, 000. 00 1,029, 600. 00 The first installment to the Lucy T. and George W. Poore fund, amounting to $24,534.92, was received in March, 1915, and was immediately deposited in the United States Treasury to the credit of the permanent fund. Other deposits to this fund during the year were from the income of several funds amounting to $2,565.08, or a grand total of $27,100, making a total now deposited in the Treasury to the credit of the permanent fund of $987,600. That part of the fund deposited in the Treasury of the United States bears interest at 6 per cent per annum, under the provisions of the act organizing the Institution and an act of Congress approved March 12, 1894. The rate of interest on the West Shore Railroad bonds is 4 per cent per annum. The income of the Institution during the year, amounting to $112,035.90, was derived as follows: Interest on the permanent foundation, $59,310; contributions from various sources for specific purposes, $12,000; first installment of a bequest known as the Lucy T. and George W. Poore fund, amounting to $24,534.92; the original bequest designated as the George H. Sanford fund of $1,020; the balance of the William Jones Rhees fund, amounting to $248.05; and from other miscellaneous sources, $14,922.93; all of which was deposited in the Treasury of the United States. With the balance of $30,560.13 on July 1, 1914, the total resources for the fiscal year amounted to $142,596.03. The disbursements, which are given in detail in the annual report of the executive committee, amounted to $100,430.17, leaving a balance of $42,165.86 on deposit June 30, 1915, in the United States Treasury and in cash. The Institution was charged by Congress with the disbursement of the following appropriations for the year ending June 30, 1915: International Exchanges American Ethnology - Astrophysical Observatory- $32, 000 42, 000 13, 000 International Catalogue of Scientific Literature___ Tower telescope, Astrophysical Observatory, Mount Wilson, Cal_. Total_ 2,000 500 10,000 10,000 100, 000 7,500 2,000 16,000 606, 000 In addition to the above specific amounts to be disbursed by the Institution there was included under the general appropriation for public printing and binding an allotment of $76,200, to cover the cost of printing and binding the annual report and other Government publications issued by the Institution, and to be disbursed by the Public Printer. EXPLORATIONS AND RESEARCHES. The "increase of knowledge" is one of the fundamental objects of the Smithsonian Institution, and toward the accomplishment of that object it has inaugurated and maintained or has participated in astronomical, anthropological, biological, and geological explorations in every portion of the world, resulting in greatly increasing our knowledge of the meteorology, the geography, the fauna and flora, and the ethnology of all lands, and in the acquisition of large amount of valuable material for the National Museum. The Institution has likewise, through special grants, aided laboratory researches in practically every line of natural science. The extent of these explorations and researches during the last 60 years covers a wide range, although a great deal more of most important work could have been accomplished had adequate funds been available. Friends of the Institution have many times, and particularly during the last few years, generously aided the work through the contribution of funds for specific purposes, but much yet remains undone, and opportunities for undertaking important lines of investigation are constantly being lost through lack of means to carry them into execution. I will here allude only briefly to some of the activities of the Institution in these directions during the year and for details of other investigations may refer to the appendices containing the reports of those directly in charge of the several branches of the Institution. GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. In continuation of my previous geological researches in the Rocky Mountains of Canada and Montana I spent a week during the field season of 1914 at Glacier, British Columbia, where I assisted Mrs. Walcott (née Mary M. Vaux) in measuring the flow of the Illecillewaet and Asulkan Glaciers. From Glacier we proceeded to White Sulphur Springs, Mont., for the purpose of studying the ancient sedimentary pre-Paleozoic rocks of the Big Belt Mountains. These explorations were made on the eastern and southern slopes of this range, and then extended to the south on the Gallatin, Madison, and Jefferson Rivers. It was found that the pre-Paleozoic sedimentary rocks were exposed by the uplift of the granite mass forming the summit of Mount Edith of the Big Belt Mountains in such a way that the thickness of the sandstones, limestones, and shales could be readily measured in the numerous sections exposed in the canyons worn by waters descending from the higher points to the valley surrounding the range. Nearly 5 miles in thickness of rock were measured, and in the limestone belts reefs of fossil algal remains were studied and large collections made with the assistance of Mrs. Walcott and Charles E. Resser and sent on to Washington. It was found that the algal remains were deposited very much in the same manner as those that are now being deposited in many fresh-water lakes, and that many of the forms had a surprising similarity to those being deposited in the thermal springs and pools of the Yellowstone National Park. In the lower portion of Deep Creek Canyon, southeast of the city of Helena, a deposit of siliceous shale was examined where some years ago I had discovered the remains of crablike animals suggesting in form the fresh-water crayfishes found in the streams and ponds all over the world. These fossils are the oldest animal remains now known, and the algal deposits which occur at intervals for several thousand feet below the shales containing the crustaceans are the oldest authentic vegetable remains. It is also most interesting that two types of bacteria have been found in a fossil state in the rock in association with the algal remains. On the north side of the Gallatin River two very rich beds of algal remains were found, many of which, on account of the fossil being silicified and embedded in a softer limestone, were weathered out in relief. For the season of 1915 I have planned some investigations in the Yellowstone Park in order to be able to better interpret the fossil algal remains found in and about the Big Belt Mountains. STRATIGRAPHIC STUDIES IN CENTRAL TENNESSEE. Under the joint auspices of the United States Geological Survey and the United States National Museum Dr. E. O. Ulrich and Dr. R. S. Bassler, of the Museum, were engaged for several weeks during the summer of 1914 in a study of debated points in the stratigraphy of the Central Basin of Tennessee with a view to determine accurately the division line between the Chazyan and Black River groups and to secure additional information on the black shale problem. The well-known marble beds of east Tennessee and associated shales and sandstones of Upper Chazyan age, with a thickness of over 3,000 feet, have never been found in central Tennessee or, in fact, in any area west of the Appalachian Valley. The first problem was therefore to determine either the corresponding rocks in the more western areas or, if such strata were wanting, to discover the unconformity representing this great thickness. It was found that the Lower Chazyan or Stones River rocks of central Tennessee are succeeded directly by the lowest Black River or Lowville formation, and central Tennessee therefore was presumably a land area during the time of deposition of the celebrated east Tennessee marbles. The second problem entailed further work on the determination of the age of the widespread Chattanooga black shale, which previously had been considered to be middle to late Devonian. In recent years this determination had been questioned, and facts had accumulated showing it to be of younger age. Two features of considerable significance in this problem were the discoveries in northern Tennessee, where the shale is well exposed, that (1) this black shale passes without a discernible break into the overlying Mississippian (Kinderhook) shales, and (2) that the fossils of this overlying shale are of late instead of early Kinderhook age. As a result of this work good collections of several well-preserved faunas were added to the Museum collection. FOSSIL ECHINODERMS IN WESTERN NEW YORK. Field work carried on during the summer of 1914 under the supervision of Mr. Frank Springer, for the purpose of adding to the Springer collection of fossil echinoderms in the Museum, was devoted mainly to a careful examination of Silurian rocks exposed along the new Erie Canal in western New York, especially the waste material thrown out in excavations for the canal. The most valuable specimens from this part of New York occur in the Rochester shales of Niagaran age, which weather rapidly into mud upon exposure to the elements, and it was therefore necessary that the new outcrops be examined at once to secure the best results. Numerous specimens of crinoids and cystids were found, a number of them having, as is rarely the case, root, stem, and crown preserved. VERTEBRATE FOSSILS IN MONTANA. Through cooperation with one of the field parties of the United States Geological Survey, Mr. Charles W. Gilmore, of the National Museum, spent three weeks during the summer of 1914 searching for fossil vertebrate remains in the Judith River formation in north central Montana. The most noteworthy discovery was the fragmentary remains of a fossil bird related to Hesperornis. It came from practically the same locality as the type of Coniornis altus Marsh, and is of importance as showing these bird remains as occurring in the upper part of the Claggett formation, whereas heretofore it was thought that Coniornis had come from the lower part of the Judith River formation. CORAL INVESTIGATIONS. Dr. T. Wayland Vaughan has for some time been engaged under the auspices of the Carnegie Institution in a study of the growth of corals, their rôle in reef building, and related problems. His field of investigation has been chiefly the coast of Florida, the Bahamas, and other regions of the West Indies. Large collections made by him in those localities have been received by the Museum. BORNEO AND CELEBES EXPEDITIONS. Through the generosity of Dr. W. L. Abbott, who for so many years has been a most generous contributor to the zoological and ethnological collections of the Museum, Mr. H. C. Raven conducted a collecting expedition in Borneo for a period of about two years. His work there was completed in September, 1914, having yielded about 3,000 interesting specimens of mammals and birds. Mr. Raven next crossed the Macassar Strait to the Island of Celebes, where he expects to remain for a considerable period and to secure important collections from a region heretofore poorly represented in the National Museum. EXPEDITIONS TO THE FAR EAST. Through the liberality of a gentleman who desired to remain unknown, Mr. Arthur de C. Sowerby has continued his zoological explorations in Manchuria and northeastern China and has forwarded a valuable collection of insects and vertebrates, including two wapiti bucks, a roe deer, two bears, and a peculiar rabbit. Mr. Copley Amory, jr., a collaborator of the National Museum, joined a party accompanying Capt. J. Koren to the northeast coast |