88 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 
On the afternoons of January 22 and 29, 
Mr. Alanson Skinner who is honorary curator 
of anthropology of the Staten Island Associa- 
tion of Arts and Sciences, delivered two lec- 
tures for children, “Life Among the Indians” 
and ‘Indian Fairy Tales,” at the Associa- 
tion’s Museum at St. George. 
TueERE has been placed on exhibition in the 
hall of North American mammals a small 
group of pikas, a small rodent called by many 
names, such as little chief hare, rat hare, 
cony, and known also as the “starved rat” 
among hunters and miners. The pika be- 
longs to the only living genus Ochotona of its 
family (Ochotonide). Ochotona alpinus and 
Ochotona ogotena are found in EKuropza- 
Asiatic altitudes of from 11,000-14,000 feet 
among the northern mountains. They are 
found along the Volge and Ural rivers, 
through the steppes of Orenburg, in the Ural 
mountains, and in western Russia including 
districts along the Obi River, around Lake 
Aral, and through the steppes between the 
Obi and Volga rivers. Ochotona sazatilis is 
found in North America and it is a group of 
this species that the Museum owns. This 
particular pika comes from Estes Park, 
Colorado, but the American pika is also found 
in all the western mountains, is especially 
abundant on the Snowy Range in the vicinity 
of the Platte River (in southern Wyoming 
and northern and central Colorado), and in- 
habits regions even as far south as New 
Mexico and Arizona. 
The pika exhibited is a small gray-brown 
rodent resembling a guinea-pig except that 
it is never longer than seven inches and has 
large, short, rounded ears. It frequents dry 
rocky places almost destitute of vegetation, 
living upon sappy plants and the twigs of 
bushes in summer, and in winter upon the 
grass which it has stored between the rocks 
of its home during the summer. It is found 
almost always at higher altitudes than any 
rabbit lives, from the timber line up to the 
line of perpetual snow. 
Maps have been placed at the entrances 
of the North Pacific Coast hall and the East- 
ern Woodland hall showing the location of 
the important tribes of Indians in North 
America north of Mexico. These tribes 
have been grouped into nine culture areas as 
recently plotted by Dr. Clark Wissler. An 
index accompanies the maps, not only for the 
purpose of indicating the location of the tribes 
on the map but also to serve as a guide to the 
collections on exhibition in the four halls de- 
voted to North American ethnology. 
AN instructive new exhibit to illustrate the 
relation of animals to environment has re- 
cently been placed in the synoptic hall of 
mammals. It consists of a map of the 
United States on which are fastened the actual 
mounted skins of various species of chip- 
munks to call attention to the fact that in 
arid regions these chipmunks are small and 
pale in color while in forested moist regions 
they are large and dark-colored — in accord- 
ance with the law formulated by Dr. J. A. 
Allen. 
A RECENT important acquisition in the 
department of geology is a slice of a meteor- 
itic iron known as “Sams Valley”. This 
meteorite was originally found in 1894 but 
was not brought to the attention of the 
Museum and scientific world until twenty 
years later. The entire mass was a small one, 
weighing only about fifteen pounds. The 
Museum however has been fortunate in 
securing an entire section weighing 1093 
grams and measuring about 6% by 4} 
inches. The polished and etched surface of 
this meteorite is particularly beautiful 
through the abundance of the mineral schrei- 
bersite which is present in small masses and 
broad thin plates, the latter showing on the 
etched surface as slender rods and the thin 
lamelle of nickel-rich taenite. The latter 
are prominent in certain lights as brilliant 
lines. This meteorite receives its name from 
the post office of Sams Valley near the local- 
ity where it was found. Its nearest geo- 
graphical neighbors among the siderites are 
Willamette two hundred miles to the north 
in Oregon, and Oroville two hundred miles to 
the south in’ California, both of which are 
entirely different from Sams Valley in appear- 
ance of the etched surfaces. 
