34 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19^1 



Curator Frank L. Hess, although an instructive series of copper- 

 nickel-silver ores was donated by the Royal Ontario Museum of 

 Mineralogy. A series of diamond-bearing rocks from the Arkansas 

 fields, received through the assistance of H. D. Miser, made possible 

 a more comprehensive exhibit of the occurrence of the diamond than 

 was heretofore shown. 



The continued activities of Victor C. Heikes have resulted in the 

 acquisition of good exhibition material to both economic and min- 

 eral collections. ^ 



An unusual meteoric iron from San Juan County, N. Mex., formed 

 the most interesting accession to the meteorite collection, although 

 an iron from Chile, stone from Kansas, and small quantities of other 

 individuals from Spain and Australia added new falls and finds. 

 These were all acquired by exchanges. 



The chief contributor to the mineral collections was Col. Wash- 

 ington A. Roebling, who supplied funds for the purchase of new 

 minerals and made other gifts. Radium-bearing minerals from the 

 Belgian Congo and a number of rare species new to the collections, 

 received as gifts and exchanges, may also be noted. The mineral 

 collection is reported as now 80 per cent complete in species. 



A number of cut gems were added to the Isaac Lea collection 

 through the Frances Lea Chamberlain fund. 



A petrographic reference series of rocks, numbering some 2,000 

 specimens, and thought to be without doubt the most important col- 

 lection, from a scientific standpoint, now in existence, was trans- 

 ferred by the United States Geological Survey. 



In addition to the paleontological material mentioned above, col- 

 lections of Cambrian, Ordovician and Silurian invertebrates were 

 made by Secretary Walcott and members of the staff of the depart- 

 ment, and a quantity of foreign material was acquired through gifts 

 and exchanges. A slab of fossil footprints from the Triassic shales 

 of Virginia, received through the courtesy of F. C. Littleton, was 

 added to the exhibits. 



Satisfactory progress was made in the care of the collections, 

 though a few changes are to be noted in the exhibits, the installation 

 of mastodon and bison skeletons, a large slab of rhinoceros bones, 

 and the slab showing footprints of a dinosaur being the most im- 

 portant. Expansion of the study series has occupied much of the 

 time of the curators and their assistants. Research work, however, 

 has progressed to the usual extent and has been greatly facilitated 

 by the acquisition of a binocular microscope which was presented to 

 the department by John A. Roebling. 



Mineral technology and mechanical technology. — These divisions 

 are concerned with engineering developments generally and their 

 industrial application. The collections endeavor to visualize by 



