48 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1910. 
Fort Union formations of Wyoming and Colorado, collected by Dr. 
A. C. Peale. 
General work on the collections.—Routine work on the collections 
was subordinated to the transfer of the department to the new build- 
ing, which was carried on as rapidly as the necessary cases could be 
supplied. The material previously contained in the rented buildings 
south of the Mall, consisting mainly of unassorted and unidentified 
specimens, had been moved the year before and temporarily stored 
on the floors and in rough shelters erected in the east court. The 
work of overhauling, labeling, and cataloguing these and other 
unstudied collections was taken up, and while good progress was 
made, considerable time will still be required to complete this large 
task. 
By the end of the year all of the laboratories and shops, as well as 
the office of the head curator, had been removed to the new building, 
and also the following collections: The reserve and geographic exhibi- 
tion series in applied geology; the exhibition series in systematic 
geology; the entire collection of meteorites; the reserve and duplicate 
series of minerals; the reserve and duplicate series in invertebrate and 
vertebrate paleontology, except the Cambrian material on which the 
Secretary is at work and which remains mostly in the Smithsonian 
building; and a part of the reserve and duplicate series in paleobotany. 
The fitting up of laboratories and the storage of material in the new 
quarters were in various stages of adjustment, in some directions 
approaching completion, but it was impossible to finish any part of 
the new installation of exhibition collections, though this work is 
rapidly progressing. 
General work in the division of systematic and applied geology has 
consisted almost wholly of the preparation of exhibition material, the 
separation of duplicates and the copying of about 18,000 catalogue 
cards on the standard size of card recently adopted. Early in the 
year a thorough overhauling of the mineral and gem collections was 
begun, the classification used by Dana in his System of Mineralogy 
being adopted for their rearrangement. This work involves the num- 
bering of a large quantity of specimens, the revision and amplifica- 
tion of many labels, and the preparation of a new card catalogue. 
Advantage is also being taken of the opportunity to separate the 
duplicates from such material as is considered appropriate to retain 
in the reserve series which, together with the exhibition series, has, so 
far as the work has gone, been placed in exceptionally good condition 
for study and reference. The mineralogical laboratory in the new 
building is being furnished in a manner to provide for the more 
convenient and detailed study of material than has been possible 
heretofore. 
