REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 65 



ing the year by the curator, assisted by Ensign W. E. Safiford, Ensign 

 C. S. McClain, and Mr. R. S. Tarr, in the way of assorting the material 

 already on hand, and the distribution of duplicates. A card catalogue of 

 the collection is nearly completed, and a number of important exchanges 

 with several European museums have been made during the year. 



Department of Invertebrate Fossils. — This department is now divided 

 into two sections, Dr. C. A. White, honorary curator of the department, 

 retaining charge of all except the Paleozoic fossils which are in the hands 

 of Mr. C. D. Walcott, honorary curator of that department. 



Department of Recent Plants. — The collection of recent plants, for many 

 years in the custody of Dr. John Torrey, of New York, and afterwards 

 deposited in the Department of Agriculture, have been kept in excellent 

 condition by Dr. Yasey, curator of the department. 



Department of Fossil Plants. — This department is administered by Prof 

 Lester F. Ward, honorary curator, who, like the curators of fossil in- 

 vertebrates, is an officer of the Geological Survey. 



Department of Lithology and Physical Geology. — The collection of build- 

 ing stones under the charge of Mr. George P. Merrill, assistant, acting 

 as curator, presents each month a more imposing appearance in the ex- 

 hibition gallery. The space assigned to it has been considerably in- 

 creased during the year. Owing to the expense of preparing the speci- 

 mens, little has fieen done towards getting ready for exhibition the great 

 hoard of material which lies at present unutilized, in the southwest 

 court. 



The curator of this department has recently undertaken the develop- 

 ment of the collections in physical geology, but has not yet had oppor- 

 tunity to seriously begin work. 



Department of Minerals. — Since the death of Dr. George W. Hawes r 

 curator of this department, Mr. W. S. Yates, aid in the Museum, has 

 had charge of the mineral collections, and has nearly completed the task 

 of rearranging and classifying the material. Prof. F. W. Clarke, chem- 

 ist of the United States Geological Survey, was appointed honorary 

 curator on December 3. 



Department of Metallurgy and Economic Geology — Mr. Frederick P. 

 Dewey has been appointed fall curator in this department. Until 

 within a few weeks nothing had been done towards developing the ex- 

 hibition series, the time of the curator and his assistant having been 

 devoted to the overhauling and cataloguing a portion of the great mass 

 of unassorted metallurgical material acquired by the Museum at the 

 close of the Philadelphia Exhibition. There is still an immense quan- 

 tity of ores and metallurgical products stored away in the original pack- 

 ing boxes within the Museum building, and also in a temporary shed 

 attached to the arinory building. This latter was obtained by Mr. 

 Thomas Donaldson at the close of the so-called " permanent exhibition" 

 on the Centennial grounds in Philadelphia. 



