REPORT ON THE DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY. 

 P>y George P. Merrill, Head Curator. 



Reports from all divisions of the department show a fairly satis- 

 factory increase in the collections, commendable progress in their 

 care and preservation, and a steady continuation of the research 

 work which has been a noteworthy feature of the department's 

 achievements in the past three years. 



Accessions. — Though slightly less in number than last year, there 

 has been a decided increase in accessions as compared with those 

 immediately preceding, 217 having been recorded, with an aggregate 

 of 23,504 specimens. As is usual, we are indebted to the gener- 

 osity of interested friends for the greater part of these, 137 being 

 recorded as gifts, 35 by transfer from other departments of the 

 Government, 24 as exchanges, 9 collected by members of the staff, 

 8 by purchase, and 4 as loans or deposits. Notable among these are 

 the following: 



Mention was made in last year's report of valuable collections of 

 tin and tungsten ores obtained in Bolivia by Custodian Frank L. 

 Hess. Early in the present fiscal year a later shipment of similar 

 material was received, also collected by Mr. Hess especially for 

 museum exhibition purposes and therefore unusually well selected. 

 Likewise, through Mr. Hess's interest there were presented by the 

 Standard Chemical Co., Naturita, Colo., examples of carnotite, 

 hewettite, and vanadium oxides. The carnotites are perhaps the 

 finest thus far mined, and the generosity of the company is most 

 gratifying, as these interesting ores are being exploited to such an 

 extent that in the very near future good exhibition material will 

 become unobtainable. It is therefore imperative that such samples 

 be preserved for future scientific purposes as well as display. The 

 hewettite is the best thus far found in the United States. Three 

 large specimens of uranophane-bearing sandstone, presented by 

 John J. Bonner, Lusk, Wyo., were also secured by Mr. Hess. 



Dr. Frank Springer, East Las Vegas, N. Mex., presented eight 

 nuggets of gold, the largest weighing 4| ounces, from the Maxwell 

 land grant, New Mexico. These are notable as the only important 

 examples of their kind in the Museum from the placers of that 

 State. At Doctor Springer's request, Hon. Holm O. Bursiun, Sena- 

 tor from New Mexico, presented examples of torbernite, a radium- 

 bearing mineral, from White Signal, Grant County. N. Mex. 



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