Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/498

456 dated April 30, 1890, providing for the "organization, improvement, and maintenance" of a National Zoölogical Park. This act places the park under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution, and orders that it be administered for the advancement of science and the instruction and recreation of the people.

As soon as surveys could be completed, about one hundred and seventy acres of ground most picturesquely situated on Rock Creek, near Washington City, were secured and preparations begun for the reception of animals. This undertaking is so recent that little more has been accomplished than constructing roads, building animal houses, fences, etc., but there are already more than five hundred animals in the embryo Zoo. The natural features of the region, with its watercourses, ravines, rocky cliffs, forest trees, open glades, and sunny southern slopes, are superior to any site occupied in this way abroad or at home, and its extent is ten to fifty times greater than that of most of the gardens of Europe. Under the management of Dr. Frank Baker, the future of the National Zoölogical Park is very great; he plans to place the animals on ground appropriate to their natural habits and instincts, so that they can live under conditions similar to those enjoyed in freedom—a scheme only possible in a park of such great extent and variety of natural features.

—Prof. Baird had begun preparations for the establishment of an observatory for the study of the physical condition of celestial bodies, and when Mr. Langley succeeded to the secretaryship this eminent authority on solar physics soon secured its endowment by Congress. The late Dr. J. H. Kidder bequeathed five thousand dollars for prosecuting physical researches, and Dr. Alexander Graham Bell presented the like sum to the Secretary for the same purpose. In 1889-'90 a temporary wooden building was erected in the Mall south of the Norman building, and, though not entirely suitable for delicate research, much excellent work has been accomplished. In it are placed a