REPORT ON" THE DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY 

 IN THE U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1892. 



By George P. Merrill, Curator. 



As during the previous year, a considerable proportion of our time 

 has been occupied in the arrangement of the exhibition series. This 

 work was interrupted during the months of November, December, and 

 January by the laying of the new pavements in the south-west court 

 and west-south range. This necessitated moving all the floor-cases in 

 both halls, aud, incidentally, nearly every specimen, since specimens and 

 labels were as a rule displaced by the jar caused by moving the cases, 

 or else were so covered with dust as to necessitate thorough cleansing. 

 Aside from the mere delay here involved, fully two months were actu- 

 ally lost, so far as advance of work was concerned, in restoring the col- 

 lections to their original conditions. 



A very important work of the year has been the preparation of some 

 two hundred sets of duplicates for gratuitous distribution. In addition 

 to the immense quantity of duplicate matter received from the Centennial 

 Exposition at Philadelphia in 1876, there has since accumulated much 

 other valuable material, and the long-deferred time seemed to have 

 actually arrived when the department could begin to respond to its 

 many applications. In order, however, that the collections might be 

 to some extent systematic, several collecting trips were undertaken 

 during the late summer and fall. Mr. W. H. Newhall was thus engaged 

 in New Jersey and Virginia in August and September, and the curator 

 made brief trips into New Jersey, Maine, and Massachusetts on similar 

 errands. The collections thus obtained are noted under the head of 

 accessions. The following list shows the character of the material put 

 into these series : 



205 



