48 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1898. ^ 



I)eri()d of some two weeks, owiug to the delay in the completion of 

 the gallery cases and Mr. Newhall's absence in Nashville and Omaha. 

 The work is now progressing satisfactorily. 



An immense amount of detailed work has been accomplished in over- 

 hauling and classifying collections stored in boxes and drawers, but 

 much yet remains to be done. 



Scarcely any investigations of note have been undertaken by any of 

 the curators, owing to the pressure of other matters and the unsatisfac- 

 tory condition of the exhibition halls. The head curator was himself 

 absent in Europe during the first five months of the year, attendant 

 upon the meetings and excursions of the Seventh International Geo- 

 logical Congress, and engaged in a study of European museums. Mr. 

 Lucas has nearly completed his work on the Fossil Bison of North 

 America, and Messrs. Charles Schuchert and David White have made 

 a preliminary study of the fossils collected by them in Greenland dur- 

 ing the summer of 1897. Their results are now in press. 



With the exception of the collections made by Messrs. Schuchert 

 and White in Greenland and the necessarily limited amount of mate- 

 rial brought back by the head curator from Russia, scarcely anything 

 has been done toward the enrichment of the collections through the 

 direct efforts of Museum officials. The collections made by the V. S. 

 Geological Survey and obtained by gift, purchase, and exchange have 

 been already referred to. 



The usual custom of loaning collections for study has been adhered 

 to. Two small lots of vertebrate materials were loaned during the 

 year, the one to Prof. H. L. Osborn, of New York, and the other to Dr. 

 C. R. Eastman, of Cambridge. Dr. J. F. Whiteaves, of Ottawa, Canada, 

 was in like manner loaned a collection of Hamilton fossils, and Dr. 

 George H. Girty, of the U. S. Geological Survey, has had the loan of a 

 collection of English Carboniferous pelecypods for comparison with 

 American species. A collection of thin sections of roofing slates was 

 loaned Prof. T. Nelson Dale, of Williamstown, Massachusetts, and the 

 U. S. Geological Survey has on sundry occasions been granted the 

 usual courtesies. 



The condition of the laboratories and exhibition halls has been such 

 as to afford little encouragement to students and investigators. Prof. 

 O. P. Hay has studied the large Cretaceous fishes from Kansas, with a 

 view to deciding certain points in the structure of the skull and verte 

 bral column, and also to ascertain whether or not the genus Portheii.s is 

 synonymous with Xiphactinas. Several new points on the structure 

 and afllnities were ascertained and the conclusion reached that Xiphac- 

 tinas Leidy, was identical with Foriheus Cope. Similar results were 

 reached independently by Albaii Stewart, of Lawrence, Kansas. Prof. 

 Henry F. Osborn has likewise studied the type of such species of Cory- 

 phodon as are represented in the collections. 



Aside from the studies of members of the U. S. Geological Survey. 



