76 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1913. 



Survey, one of whicli deals with the IVIiddle Devonian rocks, particu- 

 larly of New York State, and the other and larger one with the early 

 Devonian rocks of Maine, from wliich the Museum has hitherto had 

 practically no material. The second consisted of 300 specimens from 

 the Silurian rocks of the Eastport (IVIaine) quadrangle, including 

 many types, wliich have been the subject of a paper by Prof. Williams 

 pubUshed by the Museum, and of a larger work to be issued by the 

 Survey, and which are of particular interest as the area had not 

 previously been represented in the Museum, and also because of the 

 relationship of the Maine Silurian faunas to those of Europe. The 

 thhd accession, containing approximately 4,000 Ordovician fossils 

 fi'om the Central Basin of Tennessee, collected several years ago by 

 Mr. E. O. Uh'ich and Dr. R. S. Bassler, although including no type 

 material is of much stratigraphic value. 



Some 800 specimens of Paleozoic fossils from the Detroit River and 

 other series of Canada, obtained by purchase from Rev. Thomas 

 Nattress, of Amherstburg, Ontario, are especially important in that 

 they illustrate the life of the uppermost Silurian and lowermost 

 Devonian formations of the Detroit River region, from which the 

 Museum has hitherto received no collections. The material derives 

 additional significance from the fact that it can not be duplicated. 

 About 1,000 specimens of lowest Silurian fossils were collected for 

 the Museum in southwestern Ohio by Dr. Bassler, and about 500 

 specimens of Devonian and Lower Carboniferous moUusks from the 

 ISIississippi Valley were contributed by ^Ir. Frank Springer. Two 

 collections of Tertiary fossils from various locaUties in the Canal 

 Zone, collected for the Museum by JVIr. D. F. MacDonald, the geolo- 

 gist of the Isthmian Canal Commission, were received during the 

 year, one through that Commission, the other through the Costa 

 Rica-Panama Boundary Ai'bitration Commission. Two fine slabs of 

 fossil crinoids, presented by !Mr. Thomas E. WiUiams, of Arvonia, 

 Va., through Prof. T. Nelson Dale, are of such exceptional character 

 that they were placed on exhibition. An important series of 56 

 Mesozoic sponges, desired for display purposes, was obtained in ex- 

 change from the Peabody Museum of Yale University. 



Much attention was paid to the improvement of the exhibition 

 collections of invertebrate paleontology, which included the fol- 

 lowing new installations, namely, a geological column illustrating 

 the arrangement of the rock formations of New Hampshire; a selec- 

 tion from the remarkably preserved fauna of the Middle Cambrian 

 formations of British Columbia, collected and described by Secretary 

 Walcott; a biological series of fossil sponges and graptolites; and a 

 large slab of the crinoid Scyphocrinus. A card catalogue of the 

 specimens on exhibition and the manuscript for about 1,200 labels 

 were prepared. The acquisitions of the year were catalogued and 



