REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1923. 93 



vacuum cleaner and bellows. A few of the type series transferred 

 from the Geological Survey remain unarranged, principally because 

 the authors of the reports have left the Government service, and 

 the selection and labeling of the specimens to be retained requires 

 painstaking and difficult examination of field note books. 



The gem collection remains in charge of Miss Margaret Moodey 

 who gives careful attention to its artistic and orderly arrangement. 



It might be stated that, through deaths and inaction, the depart- 

 ment is gradually losing its formerly most dependable sources of 

 new materials, and some campaign should be inaugurated for gain- 

 ing new and influential friends whose generosity and public spirit 

 will, in part at least, make good their loss and compensate for the 

 lack of interest in those to whom we have an even greater right to 

 look for support. Correspondence alone has been found insufficient 

 to accomplish this purpose. The most prolific sources for materials 

 in the past have been the Tenth Census and the various expositions; 

 these need now to be replaced by some source which will keep the 

 collections up to date as regards newly exploited deposits. 



Researches. — The Head Curator has continued his investigations 

 on meteorites as time permitted. Research investigation has, as in 

 several years past, been the dominant occupation of Assistant Curator 

 Shannon. It is characteristic of investigations on ore materials 

 that, as they progress, they necessarily become mineralogical. There 

 can, consequently, be no sharp line drawn between the research of 

 the divisions of applied geology and mineralogy. The wealth of 

 problems growing out of the classifying of the material have de- 

 manded more attention than there was time to undertake. The 

 laboratory has been constantly in use for intensive chemical work, 

 while both assistant curators have spent a large portion of their time 

 out of office hours in evaluating the results and in preparing calcula- 

 tions, drawings, and manuscripts. The results attained are in part 

 indicated by the papers published. One of the principal chemical in- 

 vestigations of the year was based on the alteration products of gem 

 variscite from near Lewiston, Utah, which have passed under the 

 name of wardite. Work in collaboration with Dr. E. S. Larsen of 

 the U. S. Geological Survey has shown that this material contains 

 at least six undescribed minerals, mainly basic phosphates of lime, 

 alumina, and alkalies, belonging to the alunite-bedaunite group. 

 Incidental to this investigation, variscite from Arkansas was 

 analyzed for the first time on purified material. Also, a mineral 

 sent to the Museum by H. G. Clinton, from Manhattan, Nev., as 

 yellow turquoise, was analyzed and found to be compact barrandite, 

 the iron analogue of variscite, heretofore known only as a rarity 

 from Bohemia. At intervals the interesting assemblage of rocks 

 from Belmont Park, Va., are being studied chemically, optically, and 



