Oct. 1896. Annual Report of the Director. 99 



Mo., calcite crystals, the crystals being six inches in length, nearly 

 transparent and showing faces of two scalenohedrons in great 

 perfection, are also valuable additions. The Meteorite Hall has 

 received by exchange specimens of falls not heretofore represented. 

 One of the most interesting accessions to the metallurgical collections 

 is the series of specimens illustrating the toughening of cast iron, 

 rendering it, to an extent, malleable. The Chief of the Division of 

 Mineral Resources of the United States Geological Survey, Dr. 

 David T. Day, who was in charge of the Mining Department at the 

 Atlanta Exposition, remembered the Museum at the close of that 

 event by sending an interesting series of nickel, magnesite and gold 

 ores from Canada, South Carolina and California. A specimen of 

 Crocidolite from Cape Town, South Africa, was donated by Mr. W. J. 

 Chalmers. A specimen of Albertite from Utah, from W. H. 

 Holmes represents a valuable mineral in a new locality. But 

 by far the most important addition to the Economic Collections are 

 the ores from Curator Farrington's Mexican Expedition. The 

 silver ores are so numerous as to compel a complete rearrangement 

 of the present collections of silver ores, which now represent all 

 phases of the occurrence of silver in Mexico. There were secured 

 interesting iron ores from the well-known Iron Mountain of Durango 

 and examples of the little known tin and mercury deposits of Mexico. 

 The Department of Zoology, except Ornithology, which in extent and 

 character of material did not at the beginning rank with the other 

 Departments of the Museum, has been brought to a higher standard 

 of completeness during the past year by extensive acquisitions in all of 

 its several divisions. Not so much attention has been devoted 

 to the lower as to the higher invertebrates. The Aldis expedition to 

 Florida brought in a quantity of sponges, crabs and molluscan forms. 

 Mr. Allison V. Armour, of Chicago, has contributed a collection of 

 5,000 insects from Yucatan, gathered by Mr. Thompson. By the 

 gift of Mr. Martin A. Ryerson, of Chicago, the Museum came into 

 the possession of a superb collection of 700 lepidoptera from India. 

 The molluscan collections have been considerably worked over and 

 revised, and additions have been made where needed. In Ichthyology 

 should be mentioned the gift of the National Museum of 105 species 

 of fishes, and several gifts of reptiles are to be noted, including 

 that of a boa constrictor presented by the Ringling Brothers. 

 The efforts of the Department have been concentrated prin- 

 cipally upon enlarging and upbuilding the mammalian collection. 

 To this end, as previously stated, an expedition was sent to Africa, 

 and large acquisitions are expected on the return of Curator Elliot. 



