THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



a yellow gem of loo carats and a wonderful blue Star-Sapphire 

 weighing 541 carats which for generations was an heirloom in the 

 family of a Nabob of the island. Besides these there should be 

 mentioned a Rubellite, or pink Tourmaline, of 40 carats, from 

 Madagascar, a 5 7 -carat yellowish-green Beryl from Ceylon and 

 an Amethyst weighing 142 carats from the Ural Mountains. 

 The last possesses the rather unusual property of scintillating 

 in a strong light. 



The mineral collection has been enriched by the acquisition 

 of a specimen of Enargite — a compound of copper with sulphur 

 and arsenic — which surpasses any specimen of the species here- 

 tofore in the Museum. It was found in Montana. 



In August the Department of Conchology received a collec- 

 tion of very handsome shells belonging to the group of Cypraeas. 

 The series was obtained by the late Mrs. Marie A. Witthaus, and 

 represents the result of years of painstaking selection. It is 

 remarkable for the perfection of the individual specimens. The 

 collection has been presented to the Museum by Dr. R. A. 

 Witthaus. 



A MAHOGANY log wliich has been completely honeycombed 

 by the Teredo shell has been put on exhibition in the Shell hall. 



The Department of Vertebrate Palaeontology has received 

 several valuable specimens and casts during the past summer 

 from foreign museums in exchange for American fossils. The 

 British Museum has sent a finely preserved skeleton of a Plesi- 

 osaur or "Great Sea-Lizard," along with other specimens found 

 at the rich fossil-quarry near Peterborough, England. The 

 Plesiosaurs form a group of extinct marine reptiles, whose long 

 neck and tail and short massive trunk with four flippers have 

 suggested the rather apt comparison of the animal to " a snake 

 threaded through the body of a turtle." Representatives of 

 the group are rare in our western fossil-fields, and this specimen 

 is the first acquired by the American Museum. 



A skull of the Woolly Rhinoceros {Rhinoceros tichorhimts) 



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