the granting to any scientific journal of definite rights over such a fund would be a dangerous precedent, I here repeat that the directors are not to consider themselves bound by these my present wishes further than they deem appropriate in connection with a journal associated with my father's name. Sixth. The Benjamin Apthorp Gould fund is intended for the ad vancement and not for the diffusion of scientific knowledge. Moreover, I prefer that it should be used to defray the actual expenses of an investigation rather than for the personal support of the investigator during the time of his researches. I do not wish absolutely to exclude the latter important use, but such an employment of funds seems to me more appropriately the function of a university than of the National Academy, and I hope, therefore, that before granting money for such a purpose the directors will consider the existing university endowments and other sources of pecuniary aid for able workers in science. Finally, I wish to express my entire faith in the wise judgment of the first board of directors and my sense of my own good fortune in being able to intrust a memorial of my father to the hands of men who have been both his scientific associates and his intimate personal friends. ALICE BACHE GOULD. BOSTON, November 17, 1897. The deed of trust was then formally accepted by the Academy by a unanimous vote, and the three directors under the trust formally accepted their appointment. The Academy then by a unanimous vote requested the president to prepare a letter of acknowledgment to be engrossed and sent to Miss Gould. The Academy then adjourned to meet at Washington on the third Tuesday in April, 1898. BUSINESS FROM CONGRESS AND FROM DEPARTMENTS OF THE GOVERNMENT. Since the April session no new business from the Government has required the attention of the Academy, but the following documents relating to the Forestry Commission have appeared since the publication of the report of the president for the year 1896: LETTER OF THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR TO THE PRESIDENT, TRANSMITTING A REPORT BY THE NATIONAL FORESTRY COMMIS SION TO THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, RECOMMENDING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF ADDITIONAL FOREST RESERVATIONS. The PRESIDENT: DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, An appropriation of $25,000 was made in the sundry civil bill approved June 11, 1896 (29 Stat. L., 432), "to enable the Secretary the Interior to meet the expenses of an investigation and report by the National Academy of Sciences on the inauguration of a national forestry policy for the forested lands of the United States." Under authority of this act, and with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, Prof. Wolcott Gibbs, president of the National Academy of Sciences, appointed a commission consisting of Prof. Charles S. Sargent, director of the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University; Gen. Henry L. Abbott, United States Engineer Corps; Prof. William H. Brewer, of Yale University; Mr. Arnold Hague, of the United States Geological Survey; Mr. Alexander Agassiz, and Mr. Gifford Pinchot, the president of the Academy being ex officio a member of the commission. The state of Professor Gibbs' health would not permit him to accompany the commission on its tour of inspection, but the other members began their work July 2, 1896, and visited most or all of the forest reservations and other public forests of the United States, devoting three months of hard travel and careful study, without compensation, to the work assigned them. Upon their return they made an informal report to me, whereupon one or more competent clerks in the General Land Office, familiar with its records, were detailed to assist in the preparation of their report, which was completed and submitted about February 1. I have the honor to forward said report herewith, and respectfully and earnestly approve the recommendations therein. You will observe that the report recommends the establishment of thirteen additional forest reservations, containing an aggregate area of 21,379,840 acres. The location and limits of the proposed reservations are shown on the accompanying maps, and the report of the commission gives strong reasons for the establishment thereof. The amount of land in each reservation already entered under the general land laws is insignificant, and is set forth in accordance with the latest data in the General Land Office, and those portions of the areas described are exempted from the operation of the Executive order requested. Some of the reservations proposed are within the limits of railroad grants hitherto made by Congress, and in such cases an Executive proclamation only reserves the alternate sections. This is notably the case in No. 6, the Priest River forest reserve, which the report of the com mission characterizes as "the most valuable body of timber in the interior of the continent." If you decide to make this Executive order, I shall prepare and submit to Congress a bill authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to indemnify the beneficiaries in any of these railroad land grants included within the limits of forest reservations established by proclamation of the President by patenting to them an equal quantity of other portions of the public domain within specified limits. The commission, which is composed of men of ability, possessed of scientific attainments which peculiarly fit them for this work, has performed this responsible duty with intelligent fidelity. The authority for establishing these reservations may be found in section 24 of an act approved March 3, 1891 (26 Stat. L., 1103), “An act to repeal the timber-culture laws, and for other purposes." It providesThat the President of the United States may from time to time set apart and reserve in any State or Territory having public land bearing forests, in any part of the public lands, wholly or in part covered with timber or undergrowth, whether of commercial value or not, as public reservations, and the President shall, by public proclamation, declare the establishment of such reservations and the limits thereof. Under this law sixteen forest reservations have been established, aggregating an area of 17,500,000 acres. No forest reservation has been established by the President since September 28, 1893. The total area of the reservations hereby proposed exceeds that of all those heretofore established by about 4,000,000 acres, but as our public forests are being rapidly denuded and the loss resulting therefrom is incalculable I do not think this apparently large area should militate in any degree against the recommendation of the commission. I respectfully suggest that the one hundred and sixty-fifth anniversary (February 22, 1897) of the birth of the Father of our Country could be no more appropriately commemorated than by the promulgation by yourself of proclamations establishing these grand forest reservations. Very respectfully, D. R. FRANCIS, Secretary. FEBRUARY 1, 1897. SIR: I have the honor to transmit for your consideration the inclosed letter from the chairman of the forestry commission of the National Academy of Sciences in relation to the establishment by proclamation of the President of the United States of a number of forest reservations. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, WOLCOTT GIBBS, President of the National Academy of Sciences. Hon. DAVID R. FRANCIS, Secretary of the Interior. ARNOLD ARBORETUM, HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Prof. WOLCOTT GIBBS, Jamaica Plain, Mass., February 1, 1897. President of the National Academy of Sciences. SIR: The commission appointed by you last year, at the request of the Secretary of the Interior, to examine the forests on the public. domain and prepare a plan for their care now recommends the establishment of the following forest reserves: 1. THE BLACK HILLS RESERVE. This proposed reserve embraces the central portion of the Black Hills of South Dakota, and has an established area of 967,680 acres. The mountains in this proposed reserve are covered with forests of yellow pine, and in the valleys between them spruces and cottonwoods principally occupy the ground. These forests are entirely isolated, and afford the only timber which is produced in the territory between Minnesota on the east and the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming and the Rocky Mountains on the west. The region immediately north of the proposed reserve contains a number of mines which depend on these forests for timber and fuel, and the settlers in the valleys of streams flowing from them have no other local timber and fuel supply. It appears important, therefore, that these forests should be protected and made permanently productive, and that they should continue to guard the sources of the numerous streams which head in the Black Hills and are essential for the irrigation of the desert region adjacent to their courses. The forests on this proposed reserve have suffered seriously from fire and the illegal cutting of timber, the mines in this whole region having been practically supplied with timber and fuel taken from the public domain. It is evident that without Government protection these forests, so far as their productive capacity is concerned, will disappear at the end of a few years, and that their destruction will entail serious injury and loss to the agricultural and mining population of western North and South Dakota. Within this proposed reserve there are thirteen quarter sections of land covered by existing entries, findings, selections, or other claims on record on the tract books in the General Land Office up to the 20th of January of the present year. These quarter sections are situated near the outside boundaries of the proposed reserve, and do not include the township sites of Custer and other small towns on the line of the northern extension of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, which crosses the proposed reserve from south to north. 2. THE BIG HORN RESERVE. This proposed reserve has an estimated area of 1,198,080 acres and embraces both slopes of the Big Horn Mountains, a high, isolated, and exceedingly broken range in northern central Wyoming, containing a number of peaks varying from 9,000 to 11,000 feet in altitude, and the sources of many streams watering broad valleys east and west of these mountains. The forests which cover the Big Horn Mountains are composed of pines and spruces of small size. They contain sufficient material, nevertheless, to supply the local demands of agricultural settlers and of possible mining operations, but are not commercially valuable. These forests, however, protect the sources of many streams capable of irrigating a large territory which, without irrigation, can produce only scant and uncertain pasturage. The forests on the Big Horn Mountains have already suffered severely from fire. As the country becomes more settled fires may be expected to increase, and as forests reproduce themselves slowly in this dry climate their loss will reduce the irrigating capacity of these streams and the value of many valleys of central Wyoming for agriculture. The proposed Big Horn Reserve contains only 15 quarter sections which are covered by existing entries, findings, selections, or other claims on record on the tract books in the General Land Office up to January 20 of the present year. 3. THE TETON FOREST RESERVE. This proposed reserve embraces 829,440 acres, and is south of and adjacent to the Yellowstone Park Timber Land Reserve. The forests which cover it are similar in character to those in the Yellowstone National Park. They are capable of supplying all local demands that will probably ever be made on them, but have little commercial value. This proposed reserve contains the Teton Range of mountains and Jackson Lake and some of the grandest and most picturesque scenery of the Rocky Mountains. Within its borders are many streams flowing west, south, and north, and as a reservoir of moisture it is important. Incidentally it may be mentioned that the proposed reserve is a favorite home of the elk and other large game and that as a game reserve it would well supplement the Yellowstone National Park and the Yellowstone Park Timber Land Reserve. Within the proposed reserve only two quarter sections have been entered. A number of settlers, however, are living on unentered lands in the neighborhood of Jackson Lake. 4. THE FLATHEAD FOREST RESERVE. This proposed reserve embraces both slopes of the main Rocky Mountain Range or continental divide in northern Montana, and extends from near the line of the Great Northern Railroad northward to the international boundary. It has an estimated area of 1,382,400 acres, and contains within its boundaries several high glacier-covered peaks, numerous lakes, and the sources of important streams. Nowhere in the United States is there more sublime mountain scenery. The eastern portion of this proposed reserve consists of lands recently purchased from the Blackfoot Indians under a treaty ratified by Congress on the 10th of June, 1896. The eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains are here steep and rugged, and are mostly covered with dense forests of lodge pole pines and spruces which protect the sources of tributaries of the Missouri and the Saskatchawan, dependent entirely for their water on the snow which falls on these mountains, and protected by these forests. From these mountains issue the Cut Bank and Milk rivers, the latter, owing to its great length and the exceeding aridity of the country through which it flows, the most important stream of this region, although the Cut Bank supplies much of the water used by the Blackfoot Indians and by cattle men located east of the proposed reserve. North of Milk River flow, from the melting snow fields and glaciers at their sources, the St. Marys, Swift Current, and Belly rivers, the first passing into Canada after flowing 30 miles through the territory of the United States. This region, which is supposed to con |