38 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1903. 



cleaned and the specimens rearranged. The nonmetallic minerals, 

 exhibited in the galler}- of the same court, have been similarly worked 

 over. The cases in the Avest- south range containing the stratig-raphic 

 and historical collections have been reconstructed and the specimens 

 rearranged. The collection of fossil plants has been partially rear- 

 ranged, and new labels have replaced the temporary ones on the Pale- 

 ozoic specimens. Labels have also been printed for the Triassic plants. 

 To the exhibition of vertebrate pajeontology will soon be added a 

 specimen of Claosaurus, the preparation of which has occupied nearly 

 a 3^ear, and the mounted skeleton of a mastodon obtained at Church, 

 Michigan, in 1901. 



VISITORS. 



There was, during the past year, a large increase in the number of 

 visitors to the national collections. The total number of persons 

 admitted to the Museum building was 815,307, against 173,888 for 

 1902, an increase of 81 per cent; and to the Smithsonian building 

 181,174, against 144,107 for the previous year, an increase of about 26 

 per cent. 



The following tables show, respectively, the attendance during each 

 month of the past year, and during each year beginning with 1881, 

 when the Museum building was first opened to the public: 



