REPORT OF DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICAL GEOLOGY. 237 



den. Gift of Swedish Ceuteimial commissiouers and American Insti- 

 tute of Mining Engineers. 



One large slab (7 feet 5 inches by 3 feet 8 inches) of granite. Gift of 

 >«'e\v England Granite Company, Westerly, 11. I. 



One large slab (4 by 8 feet) of sandstone. Gift of Forest City Stone 

 Company, Euclid, Ohio. 



One large block (5 by 5 by 1 feet) of syenite from Hot Springs, Ark. 

 Gift of J. S. F. Batchen. 



Among the collections of the reserve series, but which are not now 

 on exhibition, should be mentioned a series of 854 hand specimens of 

 locks from the various geological horizons of Canada, New Brunswick, 

 and Nova Scotia, received from the Centennial Exhibition at Philadel- 

 phia, 1S7G; a series of 355 hand specimens illustrating the geology 

 and lithology of Victoria, Australia ; a series of 150 specimens illus- 

 trating the geology and lithology of New Hampshire, as described by 

 Dr. George W. Hawes in the third volume of Geology of New Hamp- 

 shire; and lastly the Eosenbusch collection, already noted. This collec- 

 tion comi)rises 587 specimens representing all the more important rocks 

 which have been studied and described by Professor liosenbusch, oi 

 Heidelberg. It is, therefore, of great value for reference purposes, and 

 may be regarded as the most important accession of the year. 



The history of the geological department of the Museum may be said 

 to date from the appointment of Dr. George W. Hawes as curator, in 

 1880. Prior to this time the collections were small and very miscella- 

 neous in their characte)*, the only material of real value, from a geologic 

 or lithologic standpoint which they were found to contain, being a col- 

 lection of 300 specimens of rocks from France, received from Louis Sae- 

 mann in 18G9, and a similar collection of 148 specimens of rocks of Sax- 

 ony, received from the Koyal Mining School of Freiberg in 1803. There 

 was, it is true, much material that might have been of value had there 

 been any accurate data concerning it, but so poorly had the records 

 been kei»t that in many cases absolutely nothing could be learned in re- 

 gard to the collections, or if anything, the information was so meagre as 

 to be useless. 



At the time Dr. Hawes entered upon his duties as curator, he also 

 took charge of that branch of the Tenth Census relating to the quar- 

 rying industry of the United States. To this work he gave almost his 

 entire attention, and the present building-stone collection is the result 

 of his exertions in this direction. Dr. Hawes's connection with the 

 Museum was, however, too short to allow the department to become 

 fully organized, and at the time of his death matters were, if jmssible, 

 in a state of greater confusion than before, owing to the large amount 

 of material that had accumulated, and the extent of the work under- 

 taken but necessarily uncompleted. The great amount of material re- 

 ceived from the Centennial Exhibition at Pliiladcli)liia in 1870 was still 

 unassorted, as was also that received from the various United States 



