xistence.

The academy has not even a place of meeting, nor is a repository
for its property and records provided for it. Although it holds
in trust large sums which have been bequeathed from time to time by
its members for promoting scientific investigation, and is, in this
way, rendering an important service to the progress of knowledge,
it has practically no income of its own except the contributions of
its own members, nearly all of whom are in the position described
by the elder Agassiz, of having "no time to make money."

Among the men who have filled the office of president of the academy,
Professor O. C. Marsh was perhaps the one whose activity covered the
widest field. Though long well known in scientific circles, he first
came into public prominence by his exposure of the frauds practiced
by contractors in furnishing supplies for the Indians. This business
had fallen into the hands of a small ring of contractors known as the
"Indian ring," who knew the ropes so well that they could bid below
any competitor and yet manage things so as to gain a handsome profit
out of the contracts. In the course of his explorations Marsh took
pains to investigate the whole matter, and published his conclusions
first in the New York "Tribune," and then more fully in pamphlet
form, taking care to have public attention called to the subject so
widely that the authorities would have to notice it. In doing so,
Mr. Delano, Secretary of the Interior, spoke of them as charges made
by "a Mr. Marsh." This method of designating such a man was made
effective use of by Mr. Delano's opponents in the case.

Although the investigation which followed did not elicit all the
facts, it had the result of calling the attention of succeeding
Secretaries of the Interior to the necessity of keeping the best
outlook on the administration of Indian affairs. What I believe to
have been the final downfall of the ring was not brought about until
Cleveland's first administration. Then it happened in this way.
Mr. Lamar, the Secretary of the Interior, was sharply on the lookout
for frauds of every kind. As usual, the lowest bid for a certain
kind of blanket had been accepted, and the Secretary was determined
to see whether the articles furnished actually corresponded with
the requirements of the contract. It chanced that he had as his
appointment clerk Mr. J. J. S. Hassler, a former manufacturer of
woolen goods. Mr. Hassler was put on the board