446 Field Columbian Museum — Reports, Vol. i. 



tive collection of the snake and lizard fauna of the region was made 

 and a few invertebrate fossils obtained. The courtesy of the offi- 

 cials of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe and of the Denver and 

 Rio Grande railroads deserves grateful acknowledgment in connec- 

 tion with the work of this expedition. During the month of August 

 the Curator visited Wyandotte, Marengo and several other caves of 

 southern Indiana, for the purpose of securing a representative series 

 of cave formations. By the kind permission of the cave owners, and 

 assisted by the courtesy of officials of the Chicago, Indianapolis 

 and Louisville Railroad, a large amount of material was secured. 

 The total number of specimens obtained was about 300, mostly 

 stalactites and stalagmites, remarkable in many instances for their 

 size and beauty. The Curator of the Department of Botany says: 

 " The only field work carried on has been that of Preparator Lansing, 

 who has continued, under the supervision of the Curator, his collec- 

 tion of the plants of the 'Lake Chicago Basin,' in which he has 

 secured an addition of 512 specimens, including many rare local 

 species, and has continued his notes on the region. This work is 

 particularly important, as not many years hence nearly the whole dis- 

 tinctive plant life of the section under study will become extinct 

 through the drainage and reclaiming of the land and the extension of 

 the city of Chicago and surrounding suburban towns. The Curator 

 has made two extended visits to the herbarium of the Gray Botanical 

 Gardens at Cambridge, Mass., and that of the New York Botanical 

 Garden, for the purpose of comparing new material with specimens, 

 and securing drawings, tracings, and descriptions of type specimens 

 in these institutions." 



Installation, Rearrangement and Permanent Improvements. — The 

 capacity of the mechanical force has been fully tested this year, for 

 besides the routine work for which the force is maintained, an extra- 

 ordinary amount of new work has been performed. The whole build- 

 ing requires constant attention, and the carpenters and painters could 

 be kept steadily employed on general repairs if no more important 

 work seemed to demand their labor. While the building is meeting 

 the demands upon it most remarkably, and is in a state of preserva- 

 tion that no one anticipated could be maintained for five years after 

 the close of the exposition, yet it is gradually failing, and the great- 

 est watchfulness is required to anticipate growing weaknesses and to 

 foresee necessary repairs. At the request of the president, D. H. 

 Burnham & Co., the well-known architects, made a careful examina- 

 tion of the building, followed by a report in writing containing valu- 



