mated to be about $40,000, is bequeathed under the condition that the income from this sum should be added to the principal until a total of $250,000 should have been reached, and that then the income only should be used for the purposes for which the Institution was created. The fund will be known as the Lucy T. and George W. Poore fund. The closing words of this item of the will read as follows: I make this gift not so much because of its amount as because I hope it will prove an example for other Americans to follow, by supporting and encouraging so wise and beneficent an institution as I believe the Smithsonian Institute to be, and yet it has been neglected and overlooked by American citizens. ADMINISTRATION. On account of the large increase in the administrative work of the Institution and its branches, brought about by the natural growth of their activities and the addition of new interests, it appeared advisable to appoint an additional Assistant Secretary, to have immediate charge of the Library and International Exchanges. With the approval of the Regents, I appointed to that position Dr. Frederick William True, who entered the service of the Institution in 1878 and for several years had been head curator of biology in the United States National Museum. Dr. True entered upon the active duties of his office on June 1, 1911. FINANCES. The permanent fund of the Institution and the sources from which it was derived are as follows: Gift of Thomas G. Hodgkins, 1891. Part of residuary legacy of Thomas G. Hodgkins, 1894– Total amount of fund in the United States Treasury.... Registered and guaranteed bonds of the West Shore R. R. Co. (par value), part of legacy of Thomas G. Hodgkins____. Total permanent fund 2,000.00 500.00 51,500.00 200, 000. 00 8,000.00 25, 000. 00 7,918. 69 944, 918. 69 42,000.00 986, 918. 69 In addition to the above, there are four pieces of real estate bequeathed to the Institution by the late R. S. Avery, some of which yield a nominal rental and all are free from taxation. 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 $83,435.30, was derived as follows: Interest on the permanent foundation, $58,375.12; contributions from various sources for specific purposes, $14,518.43; and from other miscellaneous sources, $10,541.75; all of which was deposited in the Treasury of the United States to the credit of the current account of the Institution. With the balance of $35,364.88 on July 1, 1910, the total resources for the fiscal year amounted to $118,800.18. The disbursements, which are given in detail in the annual report of the executive committee, amounted to $86,374.52, leaving a balance of $32,425.66 on deposit June 30, 1911, in the United States Treasury. The Institution was charged by Congress with the disbursement of the following appropriations for the year ending June 30, 1911: International exchanges American Ethnology Astrophysical Observatory.... Furniture and fixtures__ Heating and lighting. Preservation of collections_ Books Postage Building repairs_. Building National Zoological Park__ International Catalogue of Scientific Literature_. Elevators, Smithsonian Building. Total___. $32,000 42,000 13,000 125,000 50,000 300,000 2,000 500 15,000 77,000 115, 000 7,500 10, 000 789, 000 EXPLORATIONS AND RESEARCHES. Various scientific explorations and researches have been carried on during the past year by the Institution as far as its limited income and the generosity of its friends would permit. There have also been important biological, ethnological, and astrophysical researches by the National Museum, the Bureau of American Ethnology, and the Astrophysical Observatory, respectively, which are discussed elsewhere in this report. STUDIES IN CAMBRIAN GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY. During the field season of 1910 I continued the study of the Cambrian strata of the section of the Rocky Mountains adjacent to the main line of the Canadian Pacific Railway, special attention being given to the Stephen formation. The outcrop of this formation was carefully examined for many miles along the mountain sides, with the hope of finding a locality where conditions had been favorable for the preservation of the life of the epoch. The famous trilobite locality on the slope of Mount Stephen above Field had long been known and many species of fossils collected from it, but even there the conditions had not been favorable for the presence and preservation of examples of much of the life that, from what was known of older faunas and the advanced stage of development of the Upper Cambrian fauna, must have existed in the Middle Cambrian seas. The finding, during the season of 1909, of a block of fossiliferous siliceous shale that had been brought down by a snowslide on the slope between Mount Field and Mount Wapta led us to make a thorough examination of the section above in 1910. Every layer of limestone and shale above was examined, until we finally located the fossil-bearing band. After that for 30 days we quarried the shale, slid it down the mountain side in blocks to a trail, and transported it to camp on pack horses, where the shale was split, trimmed, and packed and then taken down to the railway station at Field, 3,000 feet below. A number of sections of the Cambrian rocks were studied and measured in the mountains north and south of Laggan, Alberta, and many beautiful panoramic photographs secured. BIOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE PANAMA CANAL ZONE. At the date of my last annual report the Institution contemplated an exhaustive biological survey of the Panama Canal Zone, and it was then hoped that definite plans would soon be completed and the survey undertaken within a few months. I am glad now to report that chiefly through the generosity of friends of the Institution the necessary funds for carrying on the work became available. With the cooperation of several of the executive departments, and of the Field Museum of Natural History, a party of about 10 naturalists was accordingly sent to the zone, and the results so far accomplished have been very satisfactory. Large collections of biological material have been received, including specimens of a considerable number of genera and species new to science. Much interest is manifest in the survey both here and in the zone. The Republic of Panama was so impressed with the importance of the work that it invited the Institution to extend the survey within the bounds of that country, which was done with gratifying results as far as the limited means and time permitted. As stated in my last report, it seemed to be highly important to science that such a survey of the Canal Zone be made, for, although it was known in a general way that a certain number of species of animals and plants in the fresh-water streams on the Atlantic side of the Isthmus were different from those on the Pacific side, no definite knowledge of the extent of these differences had been acquired. It also seemed important to determine exactly the geographical distribution of the various organisms inhabiting the Isthmus, which is one of the routes by which the animals and plants of South America have entered North America and vice versa. When the Panama Canal is completed the organisms of the various watersheds will be offered a ready means of mingling together, the natural distinctions as regards distribution now existing will be obliterated, and the data for a true understanding of the fauna and flora will be placed forever out of reach. Moreover, a great fresh-water lake will be created by the construction of the Gatun Dam, and the majority of the animals and plants inhabiting that locality will be driven away or drowned, and quite possibly some species may be exterminated before they become known to science. BIOLOGICAL EXPEDITION IN CANADA. Through the courtesy of the Canadian Government and of Dr. A. O. Wheeler, president of the Alpine Club of Canada, the Smithsonian Institution was enabled to send a small party of naturalists to accompany Dr. Wheeler on his topographical survey of the British Columbia and Alberta boundary line and the Mount Robson region. The party started in June, 1911. The region to be surveyed includes a most rugged and broken country in the midst of the Canadian Rockies, abounding in a great variety of animals and plants, and it is expected that the expedition will result in a large and valuable collection of birds, mammals, insects, and plants to be added to the National Museum series. RAINEY EXPEDITION IN AFRICA. Mr. Paul J. Rainey, of New York City, having planned a hunting and collecting trip of several months' duration in Africa, offered to present to the Institution the natural history material obtained during the trip if there could be sent with him some person skilled in the preparation of specimens. Mr. Rainey generously offered to bear all the expenses of the trip. The route of travel was to be north of that of the recent Smithsonian African expedition, through the country lying between the northern portion of British East Africa and the southern part of Abyssinia. Mr. Edmund Heller, who was one of the field naturalists of the Smithsonian African expedition under the direction of Col. Roosevelt, was accordingly detailed to accompany Mr. Rainey, and letters have been received indicating very successful results. BIRD STUDIES IN THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS AND BERING SEA. A small party of naturalists made a brief visit to the Aleutian Islands and Bering Sea during the season of 1911, chiefly in the interest of the Smithsonian Institution and the Biological Survey of the Department of Agriculture, especially for a study of land and marine birds. Through the cooperation of the Treasury Department the party was afforded transportation on the revenue cutter Tahoma. The principal results of the visit were the collection of a good series of all the land birds of the islands visited, including a particularly fine series of ptarmigan, and a large number of eggs, and the securing of some interesting observations on the distribution and habits of the birds of that region. These observations will be made use of by Mr. A. C. Bent, who has undertaken to complete the work on the life histories of North American birds, two volumes of which, by the late Maj. Charles Bendire, have been published by the National Museum and the Smithsonian Institution. ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESEARCHES IN PERU. During the summer of 1910 Dr. Aleš Hrdlička, of the National Museum, visited the great ruins of the temples and city of Pachacamac, about 18 miles south of Lima, and also the ruins and cemeteries in the district of Trujillo, Peru, where he collected upward of 3,400 crania and a quantity of other skeletal parts. A large percentage of the gathered skulls are free from artificial deformation and therefore afford a much better opportunity than previous collections for a critical study of the peoples who centuries ago occupied and congregated in these regions. Pachacamac was a religious center, much like the Egyptian Thebes and the Mohammedan Mecca, to which pilgrims flocked from all parts of Peru. After the destruction of the Temple of the Sun by the Spaniards, the place became a desolate pile of ruins, with from 60,000 to 80,000 graves of pilgrims who had come from widely separated regions. The Valley of Chicama, near Trujillo, with the neighboring country, was the seat of the powerful people known after one of their chiefs as Chimu. As to the importance of the material collected, Dr. Hrdlička remarks: Peru may well be regarded, even in its present territorial restrictions, as the main key to the anthropology of South America. Due to the numbers of its ancient inhabitants, and to their far-reaching social differentiations, indi |