54 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1&18. 



of the United States Vanadium Development Co., near Kelvin, Pinal 

 County, Arizona, presented by Maj. Harry S. Bryan, Phoenix, 

 Arizona. 



Other gifts of interest include a series of specimens from the 

 famous nitrate deposits of Chile, showing the caliche and its natural 

 associations, from Mr. W. L. Whitehead, Cambridge, Massachusetts ; 

 a cross fiber vein of asbestos, showing unusually long, pure fibers, 

 from Mr. Charles Sloane, Globe, Arizona; and a specimen of sand- 

 stone impregnated with the blue molybdenum sulphate, ilsemannite, 

 from Mr. Moses Moore, Ouray, Utah. 



Collections made by members of the staff include large exhibition 

 specimens illustrating unconformities, conglomerates, rock phos- 

 phate and phosphatic limestone, secured by Dr. R. S. Bassler ; albite 

 crystals of unusual type, columbite, black mica, staurolite, bauxite, 

 and quartz, the last named mainly for use by the Signal Corps of 

 the Army, collected by Dr. George P. Merrill, the head curator of 

 geology, in Georgia and North Carolina ; rocks to illustrate weather- 

 ing, from Virginia and Maryland, obtained by Dr. J. C. Martin; 

 sphalerite with associated minerals and brecciated chert from 

 Picher, Oklahoma, and apatite and hematite, from Iron Mountain, 

 Missouri, collected by Dr. Edgar T. Wherry. 



Transfers from the United States Geological Survey contained a 

 mass of graphite from Ratan, New Mexico, showing a columnar 

 structure unusual for that mineral ; a collection of blocks, fragments, 

 and pebbles from an Alaskan glacial ground moraine of Silurian 

 age; and a choice figured specimen of arborescent calcareous sinter 

 from the Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park. 



To the collection of meteorites were added a 500-gram newly 

 found stone from Eustis, Florida, and a 1,314-gram slice of the 

 Carleton siderite, obtained by purchase; 280 grams of an unde- 

 scribed stone from Kansas City, Missouri, received in exchange from 

 the Daniel B. Dyer Museum of that city ; and an 826-gram specimen 

 of the Burkett, Coleman County, Texas, meteoric iron, by exchange 

 with the American Museum of Natural History. 



Besides the usual work in perfecting records, systematizing and 

 completing the collection, segregating and preparing school dupli- 

 cates, etc., the card catalogue of the economic series has been im- 

 proved by a cross reference section arranged on a geographic basis. 



The division was called upon by the United States Signal Corps 

 on various occasions to do the preliminary cutting on quartzes se- 

 lected for supersonic work, and the laboratory was also of service to 

 representatives of the Sanitary Corps, United States Army, working 

 in cooperation with the Bureau of Mines in researches on gas de- 

 fense investigations. 



