REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 89 



tne genera average of preceding years. He believes tliat a comparison 

 which takes into acconnt only the ntwiher of specimens acquired would 

 be of little value, inasmuch as during the preceding year the extensive 

 collection deposited by Dr. Eoland Steiuer was catalogued, besides 

 several other large lots of material, which resulted altogether in 

 making the year 1S94-95 one of the most notable in the history of the 

 department. 



The accessions during the year covered by this report embrace 

 another collection of archaeological objects from Dr. Iloland Steiuer; 

 a number of paleolithic implements, fragments of Eoman pottery 

 and of Samian ware, fourteen specimens of animal bones, and a skull 

 of a victim of the plague of 1349, from the ITorniman Museum, Lon- 

 don (exchange); a collection of human skulls and bones from a 

 burial cave near Duffield, Scott County, Va., received from Mr. 

 A. L. Pridemore, Jonesville, Ya. ; a polished stone implement found 

 near Olympia, Wash., from Mr. E. H. Hannah, of that city; a series of 

 implemeuts obtained from the gravels of the Thames and from the 

 chalk plateau of Kent, England (purchase); a number of specimens 

 from W. P. Damon, West Auburn, Me. (exchange) ; implements, orna- 

 ments, vessels, etc., presented by Mr. Newton H. Chittenden, Mill 

 Eiver, Berkshire County, Mass.; pottery and vessels from mounds in 

 Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee, sent by Capt. J. E. Johnson, Pitts- 

 burg, Pa., in exchange; large chipped digging implements and other 

 specimens of flint from Kentucky, presented by Mr. Paul Weir, Owens- 

 boro, Ky. ; three bone whistles from an ancient grave on San Clemente 

 Island, Cal., presented by Mr. J. Neale Plumb. 



A collection of more than eight hundred archjieological objects from 

 Michigan and Alabama was lent to the department for study and 

 examination by Mr. Percy F. Matthews, Florence, Ala., and Mr. War- 

 ren K. Moorehead, Columbus, Ohio, sent a small number of specimens 

 for the same j)urpose. 



The following statement regarding the progress made in caring for 

 the collections is quoted from the report of the curator : 



Two additional storerooms have been fitted with shelves daring the past year. One, 

 in the sonth tower, has been utilized for the reception of North American pottery, 

 mostly fragmentary, but still useful for study and exchanges. Tlie othei', in the 

 southwest tower, has been filled with pottery from Central and South America, con- 

 sisting principally of entire vessels. 



All the Mexican and part of the Nicaraguan and Costa Rican collections were 

 placed on exhibition, necessitating a rearrangement of the cases already devoted to 

 objects from these countries. 



As many as possible of the entire vessels from mound explorations in the United 

 States were also placed on exhibition, and the remainder stored on shelves in the 

 rear of the long wall case at the east end of the hall. All this material was received 

 from the Museum buihliug. 



In addition there were packed and sent to storage 71 boxes containing stone 

 implements, fragments of pottery, human bones, etc. These were part of the collec- 

 tions received from the Bureau of Ethnology and were temporarily stored on tlie door 

 of the anthropological hall. The aisles and passageways are now entirely clear. 



