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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



ance Company and has also been appointed 

 advisory expert in public health education 

 in the New York State Health Department, 

 which is being organized by Dr. Hermann M. 

 Biggs, the new Commissioner. 



Some one hundred and thirty specimens of 

 minerals were added to the mineral collection 

 in the American Museum during the year 

 1913. In preponderant measure it was the 

 Bruce fund that made this generous increase 

 possible. Among the additions the following 

 are conspicuous: a wonderfully crystallized 

 surface of hopeite (phosphate of zinc) from 

 South Africa, a beautifully crystalhzed plate 

 of gold from Oregon, and a small series of phe- 

 nomenal cuprodescloizites. Hopeites have 

 seldom appeared in a collection before except 

 in fragments and with very small crystals. 

 The splendid surface of crystals of the new 

 specimen arrests attention. South Africa 

 and Madagascar are giving to the mineral 

 collectors of the world some great surprises. 

 Hardly less remarkable however is the new 

 find in Bisbee, Arizona, of cuprodescloizite. 

 Almost all collectors will recall that speci- 

 mens of this mineral have hitherto been poor 

 and scarcely recognizable. This new find 

 reveals it in dark velvet surfaces composed 

 o i minute needles of extreme beauty. 



There has been placed on exhibition in the 

 hall of fishes, a model of one of the Atlantic 

 flying fishes which is the first of this interest- 

 ing group to be shown by the Museum. 

 Flying fishes abound in the warm seas of the 

 world. Their enlarged fins enable them to 

 remain in the air for surprisingly long flights^ 

 under favorable circumstances an eighth of a 

 mile or more — and in this way they doubt- 

 less often escape off-shore dolphins and boni- 

 tos of which they are the principal food. 



The skin of the boarfish has been mounted 

 and placed on exhibition also. This is a flat 

 squarish fish [Antigonia) of a beautiful red 

 color, is widely distributed in rather deep 

 water in the tropics and belongs to a small 

 family with no near allies, the correct classi- 

 fication of which has always been a puzzle to 

 naturalists. ' 



Thr Museum has come into the possession 

 of a skoleton of the pygmy right whale Neo- 

 baloena vmrqinala This species is exceed- 

 ingly rare ixn<\ is found only in the waters 

 about New Zealand. It presents characters 



common to both right whales and fin whales, 

 with most extraordinary individual peculiari- 

 ties. These relate chiefly to the ribs which 

 are more numerous than in other whales and 

 are flat strips of bone seven or eight inches 

 in breadth. It is also interesting because of 

 the small number of lumbar vertebrse. This 

 whale is without doubt one of the most 

 important living cetaceans. 



Professor Dollo recently read a paper in 

 London in which he expressed the view that 

 Neobalcena marginata presents an extraor- 

 dinary case of convergence and that while 

 resembling the right whale in many super- 

 ficial ways it still is closely allied to the fin 

 whales. Whether or not upon further study 

 of the species Profes.sor Dollo's views will be 

 sustained remains to be seen. 



The department of geology has received 

 from Mr. D. M. Barringer of Philadelphia, 

 through the courtesy of Princeton University, 

 the loan of an important exhibit illustrating 

 the surface features, structure and theory of 

 origin of Meteor Crater in Arizona. Meteor 

 Crater is the name now applied to the hill and 

 depression in Arizona which formerly went 

 by the name of Coon Butte. The locality 

 is about ten miles southwest of Canon Diablo, 

 a station on the Santa F6 Railroad. 



The investigations of Mr. Barringer and 

 others have led to the increasing adoption of 

 the theory that this crater-like depression in 

 the plateau was formed by the impact of a 

 large mass or assemblage of masses of meteor- 

 itic iron. The depression is about 4200 feet 

 in diameter and its present bottom is 570 

 feet below the highest point of its rim or about 

 450 feet below the surface of the plateau. 

 Explorations made by the diamond drill show 

 that the bolide which caused the depression 

 penetrated to a depth nearly 700 feet farther. 



The exhibit consists of photographs, charts, 

 records of analysis, specimens of the rock 

 which was pulverized and fused by the impact 

 of the meteorite, numerous fragments of the 

 meteorite itself, bolls formed by the oxidation 

 of portions of the iron as they lay imbedded in 

 the debris, specimens of the undisturbed rocks 

 from the vicinity of the crater and samples 

 of the drill cores from the beds beneath those 

 which were altered or tilted out of position 

 when the meteorite struck the earth. The 

 whole exhibit forms a most interesting con- 

 tribution to the history of the association of 

 meteorites with the earth. 



