118 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1914. 



Marble Co., of Marble, Colo. ; and the Beaver Dam Marble Co., of 

 Baltimore, Md. 



Important material for the meteorite collection, obtained by gift 

 and purchase from Mrs. Coonley Ward, included a fine exhibition 

 slab, weighing 12 pounds, of the Estacado, Tex., meteoric stone, and 

 good exhibition examples of the Pultusk, Knyahinya, Gilgoin, Alfian- 

 ello, Mocs, Canyon City, and Descubridora falls. Specimens of the 

 Deep Springs, Hammond, Vigarano, Mount Browne, and Mount 

 Dyrring meteorites were also acquired through exchange. 



The routine work of the year, aside from that connected with the 

 exhibits, consisted, as usual, in the assorting, labeling, recording, and 

 care of specimens. Much time was spent, however, in sorting out, 

 labeling, and packing duplicate material for distribution to educa- 

 tional institutions, and so thoroughly was this done that no further 

 systematic sets can be put up at present. Eequiring the careful iden- 

 tification of every specimen used, the amount of labor involved in 

 this work is much greater than is generally supposed. Two series 

 were prepared, one comprising 100 sets of 85 specimens each of min- 

 erals and ores, the other 17 sets of 74 specimens each of minerals, 

 rocks, and ores. 



The head curator, Dr. George P. Merrill, continued the work begun 

 in 1910, under a grant from the National Academy of Sciences, on 

 the minor constituents of meteorites, and incidentally prepared a 

 manuscript for an illustrated and descriptive catalogue of the 

 Museum meteorite collection. The tests on the relative solubility of 

 the various kinds of building stones, mentioned in last year's report, 

 are approaching completion. 



Mineralogy and 'petrologij. — The most important accession, re- 

 ceived from Mr. Walter M. Chandler, of Washington, consisted of 

 50 mineral specimens, including exceptionally good examples of 

 wulfenite, crocoite, natrochalcite, and chalcanthite, obtained in ex- 

 change, besides an excellent specimen of malachite from northern 

 Rhodesia and a bowlder from Roberts Victor Diamond Mine, Orange 

 River Colony, South Africa, which were presented. Mr. Clarence S. 

 Bement, of Philadelphia, Pa., contributed six unusually fine speci- 

 mens of benitoite, neptunite, maucherite, semseyite, and whewellite, 

 and a rare form of fluorite. Fifteen minerals, mostly new and rare, 

 and of special value for the reserve series, were received from Dr. 

 F. Krantz, of Bonn, Germany, in exchange, and a fine large crystal 

 of topaz from Texas was purchased. 



Among the additional gifts were three fine specimens of cupro- 

 descloizite, the type material of a variety recently described by Dr. 

 R. C. Wells, of the Geological Survey, received from Mr. Philip D. 

 Wilson, of Bisbee, Ariz. ; a large specimen of hodgkinsonite, the type 

 of this lately defined species, received from Mr. H. H. Hodgkinson, 



