50 REPOET OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1905. 



Manga Reva, and Acapulco, making large collections especially of 

 pelagic material between these points, the vertical tow net being used 

 to a depth of 300 fathoms. A small amount of deep-sea dredging and 

 shore collecting was also carried on. 



Mr. Barton A. Bean, assistant curator of fishes, made a collecting 

 trip to Carroll County, Maryland, and Mr. Owen Bryant, of Boston, 

 secured large numbers of mollusks at the Bahama Islands, which he 

 shared with the Museum. 



Among botanical expeditions sent out by the Department of Agri- 

 culture, two were under officers of that Department, who are also con- 

 nected with the Museum; Mr. F. V. Coville, who visited Texas, Ari- 

 zona, and New Mexico, and Prof. O. F. Cook, who w^as detailed to 

 Guatemala. Mr. W. II . Maxon, assistant curator of plants, returned 

 from his second trip to Jamaica in July, 1904, bringing a large number 

 of specimens of plants. Dr. J. N. Rose, associate curator of plants, 

 left Washington on June 21, 1905, for field work in Mexico, which will 

 occupy liim during the summer. 



In cooperation with the U. S. Geological Survey and by direct 

 detail from the Museum, three members of the staff of the Depart- 

 ment of Geology were enabled to take the field for short trips. The 

 head curator. Dr. George P. Merrill, visited Florida and the Thetford 

 Mines region of Canada, securing good exhibition samples of coquina 

 and of soft limestone from the former, and a fine large block of ser- 

 pentine, with veins of so-called asbestos from the latter. The assist- 

 ant curator of stratigraphic paleontology. Dr. R. S. Bassler, made 

 explorations in Virginia, South Carolina, and Kentucky, during which 

 he made extensive collections of fossil invertebrates, while Mr. C. W. 

 Gilmore, preparator in vertebrate paleontology, collected in that line 

 in New Mexico. Mr. A. G. Maddren, under a grant from the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, spent the summer of 1904 in Alaska, mainly in 

 search of remains of the larger mammals, found fossil in that region. 

 The results of his expedition have been described under the heading 

 of researches. • 



DISTRIBUTION AND EXCHANGE OF SPECIMENS. 



Of the regular series of duplicate specimens which are prepared, 

 as the occasion offers, for the use of educational institutions, 34 sets 

 of fishes, 31 of marine invertebrates, 46 of fossil invertebrates, and 

 19 of material illustrating rock decomposition and soil formation, a 

 total of 130, besides 60 special sets, containing from a few to several 

 hundred specimens each, were distributed during the year. The 

 total number of specimens so disposed of was 14,103, of which 9,573 

 were biological, 4,248 geological, and 282 ethnological. Over a ton 

 of mineral and rock fragments was also divided among 11 colleges, 

 in lots of approximately 200 pounds each, for the use of students 

 in blowpipe analysis. 



