350 BULLETIN 109, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



of a person capable of produciug it, in such a manner as will be creditable i^ 

 himself and to the State. In the estimate which I have given to our geological 

 committee for the publiciitiou of fossils, I have stated that for a decade such 

 as those published by the government geological survey of the United Kingdom, 

 comprehending drawings and engravings of 10 octavo plates, with letterpress 

 descriptions aud the printing of 2,000 cop:es, one decade to be put forth in a 

 year, the sum of £500 currency or $2,000 would be required. But this of course 

 excludes the collection of the fossils, which would be a labor to be paid for 

 separately. At present the collection of the fossils is part of the work performed 

 by the officers of the survey and great attention is devoted to making the col 

 lection as copious as possible, in order that the provincial museum may contain 

 as full evidence as can be obtained to prove the true sequence of the formations 

 and of the useful materials with which they are associated. 



The arrangements of the museum are intended to be an imitation of those 

 of the nxuseum of practical geology in London connected with the British Gov- 

 ernment survey. The objects held In view are the science of geology and its 

 application to the useful purpose of life. In the ordinary arrangements of min- 

 erals in museums they are exhibited as they are related to one another in 

 crystalline form, chemical composition or some other marks of individuality 

 by which they can be grouped. Such an arrangement teaches mineralogy. 

 They may be shown as they are grouped together in the veins or beds which 

 contain them, with the character and attitude of the beds and of the veins 

 which intersect them. If to these particulars be added the sequence of the 

 strata and the fossils which mark them, the arrangement would illustrate the 

 geological relations of minerals. Another mode of displaying them might com- 

 prehend the useful puri)0se to which they can be devoted and it is in this ar- 

 rangement perhnps that a national collection of mineral substances can be 

 made most available for the instruction of the public. 



Including this branch of the subject the provincial museum is intended to 

 display by specimens the mineral and mechanical character of the rocks of which 

 the country is composed; by geological maps and sections, their geographical 

 distribution and their attitude; by fossils, the marks and brands which distin 

 guish them in their sequence; and by examples, the useful purposes to which 

 their contents can be applied. In a new country just beginning to ascertain 

 its possession of useful minerals, one of the most difficult things is to intro^• 

 duce the skill required to make them available. Descriptions of them and their 

 applications may be written and printed, but it is not easy to get the descriptions 

 rend; hut it requires little tuition to comprehend the objects of industrial art 

 when they are addressed to the eye, and imitative skill is more easily excited 

 by the sight of such objects than by written descriptions, even where they are 

 understood. In a collection of such objects many persons to whom the knowl- 

 edire would in no other wny come, mny recognize many substances which they 

 have in abundance at their own door, but of which they know not the use. The 

 exnmples which show this use may prompt attempts to make them available; 

 and the collection thus becoming a school of mineral arts might be the means 

 of exciting native industry. 



I v.m, dpar sir. 



Very truly, yours. 



(Signed) W. E. IvOGAIH. 



Beneps. — Accordina- to Hall, the few years' field work of the ireo- 

 lofrical survey of New York resulted in harmonizing the conflicting 



