18 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1958 
like reptile) skeletons and a protosuchian crocodile collected by Dr. 
David Dunkle, curator, and Dr. G. S. Lewis of the U.S. Geological 
Survey from Triassic rocks in the Navajo Reservation, Arizona. 
An exchange with the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, 
Paris, brought examples of six genera of ray-finned fishes, new to 
the collection, from the Triassic of Madagascar and casts of impor- 
tant types in the French museum. An important skull of Hryops from 
the Permian (Dunkard formation) of southwestern Pennsylvania 
was donated by William E. Moran. 
Armed Forces history—Among the material accessioned in the 
division of military history, the notable items are: A rare Committee 
of Safety rampart rifle made at the Rappahannock Forge and a 
model 1869 pistol with Allin conversion, one of three known speci- 
mens, from the Department of the Army, and the famous Frankfort 
Arsenal cartridge collection from Col. Berkeley R. Lewis. 
Of much importance is a collection of naval ordnance materials 
recovered from the wreck of an unidentified ship which sank on the 
reefs of Bermuda about 1595. This rare material of the sixteenth 
century included expanding bar shot of lead and wrought iron, spiked 
shot that carried tow soaked with tar, which when lighted by the 
explosion of the charge in the gun formed an incendiary shot; solid 
iron shot of various sizes, musket balls, and the breechblock of an 
iron swivel gun. 
A built-up model of a warship of the late seventeenth century was 
received as a loan from Edwin A. Link. It is believed that the model 
itself dates to that period, and it forms a rare and desirable addition 
to the exhibition series. Received from the Department of the Navy, 
also as a loan, through the Naval Historical Foundation, was a fife 
rail which stood by the foremast of the sloop-of-war Hartford, flag- 
ship of Admiral Farragut during the actions at Mobile Bay and on 
the Mississippi River in the Civil War. 
Science and technology—An unusual specimen acquired by the 
division of agriculture and wood products is a Mehring foot-power 
cow milker donated by Earl J. Waybright. This type of milking 
machine was made and sold from the 1890’s into the 1920’s and pro- 
vided an inexpensive device that lightened and speeded up the task 
of milking for the man with a small herd. 
The outstanding accession to the section of wood products is a 
group of 1,400 interesting woods of the world, in cane form, known 
as the Rudolph Block collection of walking sticks. Mr. Block was 
long known as a writer of fiction and articles under his pen name of 
Bruno Lessing, and in his travels he gathered woods from the im- 
portant worldwide forest regions. These canes represent the gems of 
the wood world and were presented by the Yale University School 
of Forestry. 
