THE DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY OF THE U. S. 



NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



By George P. Merrill. 



[With 20 plates.] 

 INTRODUCTION. 



The Geological Department, as an integral part of the National 

 Museum, dates from the appointment of Dr. George W. Hawes as cu- 

 rator, in 1880, after the completion of the brick building on the south 

 side of the Smithsonian grounds, now occupied by the Department of 

 Arts and Industries. Prior to this time, owing to the limited amount 

 of space that could be devoted to Museum purposes in the Smith- 

 sonian Building, collections were necessarily small and development 

 impossible. At the time Doctor Hawes entered upon his duties as cura- 

 tor, he also assumed charge of that branch of the Tenth Census relat- 

 ing to the quarry industry, and to this he devoted a large share of his 

 attention during the brief period of his incumbency. To the Centen- 

 nial Exposition of 1876, the United States Land Office and the various 

 United States geological surveys and exploring expeditions, the de- 

 partment is largely indebted for whatever material it possessed prior 

 to the date mentioned. Since that time the administration has under- 

 gone various changes, and the entire department moved from the 

 brick building on the south side of the grounds to the new granite 

 Natural History Building on the north side. The present paper is 

 intended as an outline guide to the collections, and as well, to show 

 the scope of the department and to what extent it is fulfilling its part 

 as a Government repository for materials of scientific interest and 

 value. The chief sources of its material, it may be well to add, are the 

 various bureaus of the Government (particularly the United States 

 Geological Survey), which by law are directed to deposit in the 

 National Museum all collections " when no longer needed for investi- 

 gations in progress." 



With reference to the arrangement of the exhibits, it may be well 

 to state that the space assigned to geology is not such as to make a 

 strictly systematic arrangement of the collections desirable or prac- 

 ticable. Certain halls are best adapted to the exhibition of a partic- 

 ular class of material and quite unsuited for others. A collection 

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