I 



REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 47 



of this city, while travclinj^- in Europe, collected niaiiy objects of 

 valiu>, iTicludiiii);- a tine series of Italian asbestos and an exceptionally 

 large cluster of basaltic cohnnns from near Bonn, in Prussia. In like 

 manner. Prof. C. H. Hitchcock, of Hanover, New Hampshire, while 

 in the Hawaiian Islands, made important creolooical collections. 

 Inasnuich as the materials have not yet arrived at the Museum, further 

 notice concerning them is left for the next report. 



Through the kindness of the Geological Survey the Museum was 

 enabled to detail Mr. H. E. Dickhaut, of that bureau, to collect an 

 extensive series of Upper Silurian fossils in the vicinity of Lockport, 

 New York. 



Mr. R. D. Lacoe has, by two important donations, continued to 

 exhibit his interest in science and in the National Museum. Through 

 the kindly interest of Mr. Harry Lee, the State Commissioner of 

 Mines, a line series of telluride ores and other desirable materials from 

 Colorado has been procured. 



As in the past, the chief source of accumidation is the Geological 

 Survey, particularly for paleontological, stratigraphical, and litholog- 

 ical material. Dr. L. T. Chamberlain has on three occasions manifested 

 his interest in the gem collection, as noted elsewhere. 



ASSISTANCE AFFORDED STUDENTS AND INVESTIGATORS. 



The custom of lending collections to workers outside of the Museum 

 has been adhered to. A small collection of Japanese marbles was lent 

 to Prof. O. C. Marsh, and 116 thin sections of granites to Prof. B. K. 

 Emerson. From the Division of Mineralogy a series of silicates and 

 several specimens of chalcedony were turned over to Messrs. Clark 

 and Diller, of the Geological Survey, to be used in special investigations 

 being conducted by them. In like manner teeth of Paleozoic sharks 

 have ))een lent to Prof, C. R. Eastman, of Cambridge. Invertebrate 

 Paleozoic material has been lent to Mr. J. W. Beede, of the University 

 of Kansas; to Dr. G. F. Girty, of the Geological Survey; to M. M. 

 Cossman, of Paris; and Dr. Anton Fritsch, of Prague. 



The study of the collections has not been limited wholly to members 

 of the Museum staff. As already noted, Dr. E. C. E. Lord has con- 

 tinued his studies in the Division of Geology, while Doctor Fritsch, of 

 Bohemia, and Doctor Matthews, of the American Museum of Natural 

 History, have briefly studied methods of installation, and, in the case 

 of Doctor Fritsch, the fossil Myriapoda and Arachnida in the Lacoe 

 collection. 



Prof. F. W. Cragiu, graduate student of Johns Hopkins University, 

 Baltimore, has passed several weeks in the Museum, working on the 

 collection of Texas Jurassic fossils. In the Section of Vertebrate Pale- 

 ontology, Dr. O. P. Hay has described two new species of fossil tur- 

 tles and Mr. Gerrit S. Miller, jr., one new species of Pleistocene bear. 



