20 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



The Museum has recently acquired a collection of South 

 American pottery containing nearly 200 pieces of black- ware 

 coming from about thirty miles southwest of Supia, Colombia, 

 in the valley of the Cauca River, which is a tributary of the 

 Magdalena. This pottery is washed out and cast aside by the 

 Indian placer miners who wash (sluice) the ancient burial 

 grounds of the valley for the purpose of obtaining the antique 

 gold objects which are frequently found in the graves and which 

 are valued solely for the metal. This pottery is remarkable for 

 its strong modeling, but poor technique. It represents con- 

 ventionalized forms of armadillos, monkeys, frogs, snakes, 

 spiders, lizards, sloths and other animals indigenous to the 

 region, as well as human figures. Some of the pieces show a 

 strong sense of humor on the part of the maker. The repre- 

 sentations of human beings are particularly instructive from the 

 data which they furnish with reference to the use of various per- 

 sonal ornaments and utensils, which have been found in the 

 country. 



The collections of the Department of Geology have been en- 

 riched during the past quarter by the accession of considerable 

 material from the Lewis and Clark Exposition at Portland, 

 Oregon. This material includes valuable series of gold, silver and 

 copper ores, oils and other economic products from the State 

 Commissions of Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and California, together 

 with extensive series illustrating the mines of Oregon and Mon- 

 tana and the work which was carried on under the auspices of 

 the U. S. Geological Survey upon the black sands which occur 

 in remarkable abundance along the Pacific coast. These sands 

 have been shown to carry commercially valuable amounts of 

 iron ore (magnetite) , monazite and garnet ; some of the sands 

 containing also gold and platinum. 



The economic collections of the Museum have received an 

 important loan exhibit in the form of a series of about one 

 hundred samples of peat and the briquettes made from peat, 

 lignite (brown coal) and coal slack. The series was collected 

 by H. H. Wotherspoon, Jr., and was made for the purpose of 



