192 AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURXAL 



ture. While the racHohirians are so small as to be scarcely visible to the 

 unaided eye, yet they are so abundant in the warmer oceanic waters that 

 the skeletons of their past generations cover the ocean floor to a consider- 

 able depth and may form a layer compacted into flinty "Barbados earth" 

 which is used commercially for polishing and finishing. 



An addition to the series of fishes on exhibition in the Museum is a case 

 containing models of certain species that live in depths of the sea one or 

 two miles below the surface where no light penetrates. Many of them are 

 provided with special phosphorescent organs arranged along the sides or 

 in some cases at the ends of flesh}' filaments, like minute lanterns on long 

 poles to light the sea bottom or to lure prey. The models represent some 

 of the remarkable forms which have been obtained in the course of the 

 work of the "Albatross" and other vessels equipped for deep-sea dredging. 

 They were purchased from the modeler who made the.original series for the 

 British Museum and have been altered according to the researches of Dr. 

 Bashford Dean and in part recolored by the Museum artists. 



The department of anthropology has issued to artists and teachers 

 of art classes in New York City and vicinity a card calling attention to the 

 remarkable collection of prehistoric Peruvian cloths recently put on exhi- 

 bition in the South American gallery. Not only are these mummy cloths 

 of unusual beauty but they also present an opportunity to study the evolu- 

 tion of primitive designs and color schemes. 



During the coming summer Dr. Frank E. Lutz will continue the study 

 of the invertebrates of the vicinity of New York City paying especial atten- 

 tion to the Ramapo Mountains and Pine Barren regions of New Jersey. 



Dr. Herbert J. Spixden, assistant curator of anthropology, is on a 

 Museum expedition in the Southwest. In January he visited the ruins 

 of Copan in Guatemala returning to the Southwest to study the little-known 

 remnants of Puel^lo tribes formerly living on the lower Rio Grande in the 

 vicinity of El Paso. He is now among the Rio Grande Pueblos proper 

 near Santa Fe taking up again the work of former years on decorative art 

 and material culture. 



The department of anthropology reports progress in local arclueological 

 discoveries. Mr. William Floyd of Long Island, while looking for arclueo- 

 logical remains on his estate uncovered an Indian burial, the skeletons from 

 which he has presented to the Museum. The grasc contained three skele- 

 tons, one apparently that of a girl, the others of two middle-aged men. 

 As is the case with most burials in this vicinity, no objects of any kind were 

 found in the graves. Mr. Max Schrabisch of Paterson, New Jersey, has 

 again begim his .search for rock-shelters and reports the finding of a very 

 important one near Stony Point, New ^'ork. The excaxations of this 

 shelter so far have been rewarded with rich finds of pitted hammerstones, 

 knives, scrapers and pottery. 



