Oct. 1898. Annual Report of the Director. 283 



their uses. All these make up an unusually complete and instructive 

 exhibit. A collection illustrating the varieties, origin, and composi- 

 tion of soils has also been prepared and installed here, the material 

 having been largely gathered by the Assistant Curator. This was 

 prepared chiefly in response to requests from teachers in the public 

 schools who wished to use it for purposes of instruction. Other col- 

 lections shown in this hall illustrate the origin and methods of manu- 

 facture of mineral paints, of varieties of sand ajid cement, of varieties 

 of pressed brick, and of varieties of brick clays and fire clays. In 

 Hall No. 79 the collection of zinc ores and products has been re- 

 arranged to include the material obtained by the Assistant Curator in 

 Joplin and vicinity. A rearrangement of the gold, silver, and lead 

 ores is now in progress in Hall No. 72. This has been made neces- 

 sary in order to provide for the exhibition of a large amount of mate- 

 rial now in storage, and to improve the classification of the collections. 

 A series of about fifty large framed photographs, illustrating the 

 methods of mining and metallurgy in use in Ecuador and Chile, has 

 been placed upon the walls in this hall. The phosphates received 

 from the Nashville Exposition have been installed with the collection 

 previously exhibited in Hall No. 78, increasing its size and value. 

 Halls Nos. 74 and 75, occupied by the departmental library and labor- 

 atory, have undergone extensive alterations which add much to their 

 appearance and increase the working facilities of the department. 

 In the library the books have been made to occupy but half the 

 space they formerly filled. The area so gained has been parti- 

 tioned off and fitted with storage trays and tables for the use of 

 the assistants in vertebrate paleontology. The laboratory, likewise, 

 has been divided by a partition into two rooms, one of which con- 

 tinues to serve as the laboratory. It has been provided with water 

 and air baths, sink and table, and is piped for gas and water. A 

 Becker chemical balance, sensitive to one-tenth of a milligram, 

 and a set of platinum dishes have been provided. The laboratory is 

 now, therefore, fairly well equipped with facilities for chemical work 

 which have long been needed, and it is hoped in the coming year to 

 carry on a number of investigations in this line. The three Goyard 

 assay furnaces which were formerly kept in the laboratory have been 

 removed to the boiler-house and set up in a room specially built 

 for the purpose. These will give facilities for making assays, for 

 which there is frequent demand. The transparencies, enlarged from 

 cuts in De Re Metallica, which were formerly exhibited in the 

 laboratory, are now shown in classified order in Halls Nos. 72 and 

 79. In the Herbarium of the Department of Botany very extensive 



