62 REPORT OP NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1897. 



There were 1,341 specimens received during the year. The last cata- 

 logue entry in June, 1896, was 83747, and in June, 1897, 84279, giving 

 a total of 532 entries. It should be stated, however, that a considera- 

 ble number of specimens received in previous years have but recently 

 been entered on the catalogue. 



DEPARTMENT OF aEOLOGY. 



The curator, Dr. George P. Merrill, states that there were 86 " regular" 

 and 176 "temporary" accessions received during the year. In the 

 "temporary" accessions, consisting of material received for examina- 

 tion, there was an increase of 16 over last year. 



The accessions of greatest imiwrtance were the following: From Mr. 

 H. S. Washington, Locust, New Jersey, 42 specimens of volcanic rocks 

 obtained in Italy (gift) 5 from Prof. Frank D. Adams, Montreal, Can- 

 ada, 14 si)ecimens of rocks from Canada (exchange) ; a drift bowlder 

 of native copper, obtained by purchase; from the U. S. Geological 

 Survey, 264 si)ecimens of rocks from Nevada City and Grass Valley, 

 California, and 252 microscopic sections of rocks from the same locali- 

 ties; from Prof. C. H. Hitchcock a series illustrating geological sec- 

 tions across Vermont and New Hampshire (exchange) ; a fine series of 

 spherulitic liparites, described by Dr. Whitman Cross, and transmitted 

 by the U. S. Geological Survey; collections illustrating the petrology 

 of Pike's Peak, Cripple Creek, and Gunnison, Colorado, described by 

 Messrs. Cross and Penrose, and received from the II. S. Geological 

 Survey ; rocks from the Tewan Mountains, collected by Maj. J. W. Powell 

 and Mr. W. H. Holmes, and described by Prof. J. P. Iddings, also 

 received from the U. S. Geological Survey; a collection of zinc and 

 lead ores obtained in Cherokee Oount}^, Kansas, and presented by 

 Mr. B. Cooley, of Galena; 10 specimens of gold and silver minerals, 

 and 4 specimens of fine native gold and silver, purchased for the 

 Nashville Exposition; a collection of Nepheline rocks of Canada, 

 from Prof Frank D. Adams, Montreal (exchange); a tine slab of onyx 

 marble from San Luis Obispo, California, obtained by purchase, and a 

 second slab from the same locality, presented by Mr. Frank Kessler, 

 New York City; a large slab of conglomerate from Virginia, showing 

 etched quartz pebbles (purchase); a collection of thin sections of rocks 

 obtained during the survey of the fortieth parallel, deposited by the 

 U. S. Geological Survey. 



But few changes have been made in the exhibition series pending 

 the completion of the galleries. 



A large quantity of material which has been in storage for a number 

 of years has been overhauled. This included 40 boxes of ores and 

 useful minerals received from the General Land Office in 1885, and a 

 series of ores collected by the Tenth Census Division of the U. S. Geo- 

 logical Survey. The work of assorting and cataloguing these speci- 



