Oct. 1898. Annual Report of the Director. 279 



tive series of the ores and country rocks of the Homestake and Gilt 

 Edge mines, and others of that region." During February, Assistant 

 Curator Nichols, of the department of Geology, spent three weeks 

 among the zinc-lead deposits of Southwest Missouri, studying the 

 ores and metallurgy of the region, collecting ores, metallurgical 

 products, and minerals, and taking photographs of the workings, 

 both above and below ground. Besides the ores and metallurgical 

 products collected, exceptional specimens of the fine minerals 

 for which this region is famous were secured. The photographs 

 taken were used to illustrate a lecture upon the region given in 

 the spring course. As a result of this trip, the economic col- 

 lections have been enriched by a collection of zinc and lead 

 ores and associated rocks from the most important zinc-producing 

 region of the country. A collection illustrating the ore hearth proc- 

 ess of lead smelting adds much to the completeness of the metal- 

 lurgical collection. In January the Curator spent some time in 

 investigating a find of mastodon bones near St. Louis, Mo. A large 

 amount of the remains was found in place, but owing to excessive 

 rains, but few specimens could be collected. During the return trip 

 of the expedition to the Bad Lands, the Omaha Exposition was 

 visited and a number of specimens secured from exhibitors there. 

 Mr. Elliot, the Curator of the Department of Zoology, and his assist- 

 ant, Mr. C. E. Akeley, were commissioned upon an expedition to the 

 Northwest in July. Under date of September 13, from the Olym- 

 pian Mountains, Mr. Elliot writes: " The expedition to the Olym- 

 pian Mountains, which I am at present conducting, has thus far 

 secured five hundred skins of deers, carnivora, and rodents, which col- 

 lection we hope to increase considerably before our labors are ended. 

 This collection is exceedingly valuable, coming as it does from hith- 

 erto unknown localities where no naturalist has ever penetrated. 

 There are probably species new to science among them, but how 

 many cannot be determined until they have been examined and com- 

 pared with other material. The country in which these have been 

 procured is the roughest and most difficult to traverse that I have 

 ever seen, and my experience in the various mountain ranges of 

 North America has been very extensive. A great portion of the 

 Olympians is absolutely impassable, and we have reached a point 

 beyond which nothing, unless provided with wings, can go, while 

 from our camp we can look over a vast extent of the range totally 

 unknown and unapproachable. A naturalist, therefore, can fully ap- 

 preciate the value of the material we have secured. Even if already 

 known, specimens coming from such localities are of almost as much 



