44 KEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1902. 



ered by the second volume, now in press. Mr. Ridgway has given 

 much time and care to the preparation of this important work. 



Volume XXIII of the Proceedings was issued in February, 1902. 

 It contains 35 papers (numbered from 1206 to 12-1:(», inclusive), 24 of 

 which Avere written by members of the Museum stall' and 11 by cor- 

 respondents and collaborators. Eight of the papers relate to fishes, 

 mainly Japanese, 7 to insects, and the remainder to fossil vertebrates, 

 reptiles, recent and fossil moUusks, marine invertebrates, and plants. 

 Proceedings papers 1241 to 1274, inclusive, comprising Volume xxiv, 

 have been published in the form of separates. 



A most useful work produced during the year, constituting Bulletin 

 51, was a list of the publications of the Museum, being- a catalogue of 

 all volumes and separate papers issued from 1875 to 1900, with an 

 index b}' titles. It was prepared by Mr. R. I. Geare. 



The papers comprising the general appendix to the annual report 

 for 1900 have been issued in separate form, but the volume itself was 

 not received from the Government Printing" Office until after the close 

 of the year. The opening- article, by Mr. W. H. Holmes, is based on 

 anthropological investigations by the author in California. Prof. 

 O. T. Mason descri])es some aboriginal American harpoons. Mr. 

 Charles K. Wead, of the United States Patent Office, contributes an 

 article on tiic history of nnisical scales, and Dr. Walter Hough one on 

 Hopi ceremonial pigments. A sketch of the history of ceramic art in 

 China, with a catalogue of the Hippisley collection of Chinese porce- 

 lains, is reprinted, with some additions, from the report of 1888. The 

 author, Mr. Alfred E. Hippisley, commissioner of the imperial mari- 

 time customs sen-vice of China, has had on deposit in the National 

 Museuu) for several j^ears a most interesting and valuable collection of 

 Chinese porcelains, and is well fitted to write upon this subject. A 

 catalog-ue of the collection of gems in the National Museum, by Mr. 

 Wirt Tassin, contains descriptions of the gem minerals and their prop- 

 erties, comparative tables of the colors and distinguishing characters 

 of the principal varieties, and ai'ticles on the cutting of gems, their 

 artificial formation, sup])osed mystical properties, etc. A descriptive 

 catalogue of the meteorite collection, by the same author, is designed 

 partly to facilitate the exchange of specimens. 



Part N of Bulletin No. 39, entitled Directions for Collecting and 

 Preparing study Specimens of small Mammals, by Mr. Gerrit S. 

 Miller, has been reprinted in a revised edition, with abstracts in Ger- 

 man, French, and Spanish. Directions for collectors of American 

 Basketry, by Prof. O. T. Mason, has been added to the same bulletin 

 as Pait P. 



A (drcular designed to accompany a series of collections prepared by 

 the Museum, illustrating rock weathering and soil formation, and 



