oils) and of rocks partly saturated with heavy oil or bitumen 

 from which oils may be distilled. Further consolidation and 

 hardening is shown in the asphalts proper from the celebrated 

 Pitch Lake of Trinidad in the West Indies and the great asphalt 

 flows of Kern County, California, and then the asphaltic coals of 

 New Brunswick and West Virginia, together with the natural 

 wax (ozokerite) of Galicia and Utah. 



The third series, the resins, shows the occurrence of these 

 bodies in wood and in lignite. The fossil resins include fine exam- 

 ples of amber from the Baltic Coast and copal from various lo- 

 calities in South America, Africa, and the East Indies. Several 

 of these show fine examples of insects enclosed in the transparent 

 resin. 



PIEDMONT COLLECTION 



Another special collection not yet placed on exhibition is that 

 known as the Piedmont collection of minerals. This is designed 

 to illustrate the distribution of species along the belt of crystal- 

 line rock, extending through the middle and southern Atlantic 

 states from Virginia to Alabama. This region constitutes, as 

 expressed by Prof. Joseph H. Pratt of North Carolina, a single 

 geological and geographical province, and is rich in minerals at 

 many points. The relations and modes of occurrence of these 

 minerals are matters of scientific interest and the products of 

 each state may be seen in the collections at the several capitals 

 and state universities, but no general collection has ever been 

 formed to illustrate the distribution of mineral species along the 

 entire crystalline belt. This has been the object in forming the 

 Piedmont collection, which was fairly begun three years ago and 

 has now attained to considerable and valuable proportions. It 

 is my hope and desire to enlarge and extend it until it shall pre- 

 sent a thoroughly representative exhibit of the mineralogy of 

 the South Atlantic states. 



Into the formation of this collection there have entered: (1) 

 Material already belonging to the old collections of the Museum, 

 some of which, especially that from Georgia gathered by the late 

 Dr. C. U. Shepard, Sr., is of excellent quality; (2) A considerable 

 amount of material belonging to my own collection. This was 

 obtained from gentlemen connected with the early development 

 of the mineral industry of North Carolina soon after the close 

 of the Civil War. Among these should be mentioned Dr. Alexis 

 A. Julien of New York, the late Prof. Henry C. Bolton of Wash- 

 ington, and the late Prof. F. A. Genth of Philadelphia. A num- 

 ber of the specimens bear labels in the handwriting of these gen- 



37 



