DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 103 



gist, and all seemingly important ones are so referred, but in many cases 

 simple inspection shows the material to be common mica, iron pyrite or 

 ordinary river sand or brick clay, and the finder is at once informed. 



The writer has served for many years on the Board of Advisors of 

 the Michigan Geological and IMological Survey, and as Secretary of 

 the Kon-Game License C'ommission, as Avell as on various lesser com- 

 missions and boards, all involving more or less time and attention. As 

 usual a few lectures and addresses have been given during the year be- 

 fore schools, clubs and other organizations in different parts of the 

 state, but i)ress of college work has made it necessary to decline many 

 such Invitations. 



THE GENERAL MUSEUM. 



The General ^luscum serves two important purposes. It contains a 

 large amount of valuable illustrative material which is constantly drawn 

 upon in connection with the class work in zoology, anatomy and geology ; 

 it also serves as one of the strong attractions for college visitors, and 

 in this way constitutes a factor of no small importance in the education 

 of the public. From the nature of its growth its contents is necessarily 

 of great ■ variety and the different groups illustrated are by no means 

 Avell proportioned. Formerly it included botanical specimens, models 

 and samples of agricultural machinery, wax models of fruits, a col- 

 lection of coins, and a miscellaneous assortment of more or less in- 

 teresting historical relics and other curios. 



As it became very crowded those entire collections which could be 

 well placed in other departments were turned over to them and such 

 objects as were merely curios, with little or no historical or instructional 

 value, were placed in storage. Shorn of this extraneous material, the 

 museum at present shows the public good examples of most of the mam- 

 mals, birds, reptiles and fish of the state together with an attractive as- 

 sortment of the more important minerals and rocks and a somewhat 

 limited collection of fossils. Thousands of marine and freshwater shells 

 are not displayed for lack of case room, and the same is true of sev- 

 eral thousand bird skins and eggs, and perhaps a larger number of 

 fishes and marine animals preserved in alcohol. 



It has been our aim during the past fifteen years to make the col- 

 lection of Michigan animals as nearly complete as possible, believing 

 that not only our own students, but visiting citizens of this or other 

 states ought to be able to find here good specimens of all the animals 

 peculiar to the Great Lakes Region. From time to time graduates and 

 friends of the college have made us donations of important collections 

 made in other states or even in foreign countries and these have been 

 gladl}' received and placed on exhibition whenever possible. Among 

 such donations within the past few years have been the large collec- 

 tion of mounted Michigan birds and mammals, from the Broas estate, 

 prepared by the late Levi Broas of Belding; two important collections 

 of mammals and birds from Chili, S. A., presented by I). S. Bullock 

 of the class of 1902; and two interesting and valuable collections of 

 the invertebrate animals of Puget Sound, Washington, made and pre- 

 sented by J. M. Knapp, one of the first students. to attend the Michigan 

 Agricultural College. 



Occasionally, it has been possible to acquire by purchase, at a nominal 



