'48 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1910. 



Fort Union formations of Wyoming and Colorado, collected b}^ Dr. 

 A. C. Peale. 



General work on the collections. — Routine work on the collections 

 was subordinated to the transfer of the department to the new build- 

 ing, which was carried on as rapidly as the necessary cases could be 

 supplied. The material previously contained in the rented buildings 

 south of the Mall, consisting mainly of unassorted and unidentified 

 specimens, had been moved the year before and temporarily stored 

 on the floors and in rough shelters erected in the east court. The 

 work of overhauling, labeling, and cataloguing these and other 

 unstudied collections was taken up, and while good progress was 

 made, considerable time will still be required to complete this large 

 task. 



By the end of the year all of the laboratories and shops, as well as 

 the office of the head curator, had been removed to the new building, 

 and also the following collections: The reserve and geographic exhibi- 

 tion series in applied geology; the exhibition series in systematic 

 geology; the entire collection of meteorites; the reserve and duplicate 

 series of minerals; the reserve and duplicate series in invertebrate and 

 vertebrate paleontology, except the Cambrian material on which the 

 Secretary is at work and which remains mostly in the Smithsonian 

 building; and a part of the reserve and duplicate series in paleobotany. 

 The fitting up of laboratories and the storage of material in the new 

 quarters were in various stages of adjustment, in some directions 

 approaching completion, but it was impossible to finish any part of 

 the new installation of exhibition collections, though this work is 

 rapidly progressing. 



General work in the division of systematic and applied geology has 

 consisted almost wholly of the preparation of exhibition material, the 

 separation of duplicates and the copying of about 18,000 catalogue 

 cards on the standard size of card recently adopted. Early in the 

 year a thorough overhauling of the mineral and gem collections was 

 begun, the classification used by Dana in his System of Mineralogy 

 being adopted for their rearrangement. This work involves the num- 

 bering of a large quantity of specimens, the revision and amplifica- 

 tion of many labels, and the preparation of a new card catalogue. 

 Advantage is also being taken of the opportunity to separate the 

 duplicates from such material as is considered appropriate to retain 

 in the reserve series which, together with the exhibition series, has, so 

 far as the work has gone, been placed in exceptionally good condition 

 for study and reference. The mineralogical laborator}^ in the new 

 building is being furnished in a manner to provide for the more 

 convenient and detailed study of material than has been possible 

 heretofore. 



