ing at the Haddon localities in person, I was so fortunate as to 

 secure from Mr. Ernest Schernikow of New York, who had been 

 connected with the tourmaline mines at both these localities, 

 an unusual amount of this material. Other localities in Maine 

 and elsewhere are also represented. The series includes not 

 only the familiar forms of black tourmaline but the rich brown 

 crystals from St. Lawrence County, New York; the pink, green, 

 and polychrome varieties of the lithia tourmalines; and the rare 

 colorless variety, achroite. Many of them are in large crystals 

 and illustrate these unusual forms with great perfection. 



The micas and hydromicas are also very fully represented. 

 Among these are very fine examples of the variety of phlogopite 

 known as ' ' star ' ' mica, in which a luminous star formed by three 

 lines intersecting at sixty degrees appears when the specimen is 

 held in a dark room between the eye and a small brilliant light. 

 The hydromicas are fully represented in a number of rare species. 

 Many other groups are very fully illustrated but cannot be 

 specified here. 



THE CAKBON COLLECTION 



Apart from the general collection, two or three special exhibits 

 have been arranged or are in preparation. The carbon collec- 

 tion above referred to has been fully installed in the main hall 

 and is a somewhat unique exhibit. It comprises nearly one 

 hundred specimens designed to illustrate the evolution of the 

 carbon minerals in three divisions: the coals, the asphalts, and 

 the resins. The object of the collection is to present clearly to 

 view the series of changes by which vegetable matter passes over 

 from the vegetable to the mineral kingdom. 



The first section, that of the coals proper, starts with moss and 

 shows the passage to soft and hard peats such as are used for 

 fuel so largely in Europe though not yet in this country. In the 

 same way the passage is shown from wood to lignite, and thence 

 through lignitic coals to the bituminous and anthracite coals of 

 commerce, and then by other changes to graphitic anthracite as 

 produced in nature, to coke both natural and artificial, and to 

 nearly pure carbon in the form of graphite, the last specimen in 

 the series being a fine example of the crystalized graphite. 



The second series, the natural hydrocarbons, should begin with 

 natural gas. This, of course, cannot be shown, but the next 

 stage is exhibited in samples of petroleum (both light and heavy 



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