52 BEPORT OF NATIONAL, MUSEUM, 1908. 



ing of the exhibition and many of the storage cases. Work on the 

 reserve collection has been continued and been brought well up to 

 date, some 3,390 cards and labels having been prepared. 



Dr. George P. Merrill, head curator of the department, made an 

 extensive study of INIeteor Crater, Canyon Diablo, which he began by 

 a visit to the locality in May, 1907, under a grant from, the Smith- 

 sonian Institution. His investigations tend to show that the crater 

 was formed, not by volcanic explosion, but by impact, and presuma- 

 bly from that of a giant meteorite. The results so far obtained have 

 been published. 



Mineralogy. — Among the more valuable additions to the collection 

 of minerals were specimens of the rare zeolite, edingtonite, from 

 Bolet, Sweden, and of the rare calcium copper vanadate, calciovol- 

 vorthite, from Paradox Valley, Colorado ; a fine crystal of tapiolite, 

 a columbo-tantalate, from Chanteloube, France; an excellent exam- 

 ple of hydromagnesite from Alameda County, California ; and speci- 

 mens of meteoric iron from "Williamstown, Kentucky; Ainsworth, 

 Nebraska; and Crab Orchard, Rockwood County, Tennessee. The 

 meteors were in part presented by Mr. E. E. Howell, of Washington. 



The condition of the reserve collection has been much improved 

 through the identification of many specimens and the writing of 

 several thousand labels and catalogue cards. The exhibition collec- 

 tion has been maintained in good condition, and a new series of de- 

 scriptive labels is in course of preparation. 



Mr. "Wirt Tassin, assistant curator of mineralogy, aided in the 

 study of the materials from Meteor Crater, and made ten analyses 

 of meteoric chromites, which represent over 65 per cent of the known 

 analyses. He also investigated the minerals contained in certam 

 sands from the vicinity of Norris, Montana, which resulted m the 

 discovery of the rare thorium-uranium mineral, thorianite, and also 

 of xenotime, zircon, monazite, and spinel. Numerous demands were 

 made upon this division for chemical examinations for other branches 

 of the jMuseum. 



Invertebrate paleontology. — Among the accessions received by this 

 division were several of exceptional importance. The Smithsonian 

 Institution made two very noteworthy deposits. The first consisted 

 of the celebrated Gustav Hambach collection of fossil invertebrates, 

 together with some specimens of fossil plants and vertebrate remains, 

 containing many types and a number of specimens from the Prout 

 and Shumard collections which for years were supposed to be lost. 

 The second was the Gilbert collection of Niagaran fossils from north- 

 ern Indiana, which formed the basis of Doctor Kindle's studies on 

 the subject, and, owing to the scarcity of fossil-yielding localities in 

 this region and the number of types represented, is unique and prac- 

 tically impossible of duplication. Much material was transmitted by 



