State Museum of Natural History. 13 



accessions have been kept by him ; and the general clerical work 

 of the Museum has taken much of his time and he has been in 

 charge during my absence. 



Martin Sheehy has been employed in the laboratory making 

 transparent and microscopic sections and also as general helper in 

 all of the departments of the Museum. The rapidity with which 

 rock sections are now cut, by new diamond saws, constructed by 

 him, reduces the time greatly and increases the capacity of the 

 laboratory. On account of the many calls for his help in the 

 work of museum exhibition, the actual output is less than formerly. 

 Sections for the study of fossil shell structure by the State 

 Palaeontologist have been made ; and many of building stones for 

 the department of economic geology. 



Arrangement and Accessions. 

 Mineralogical Collections. 



The mineralogical rooms on the principal floor of the Museum 

 remain essentially as their arrangement was reported for 1888. 

 The general collection is exliibited in these rooms and in wall 

 cases and table cases. The system of Dana's mineralogy is fol- 

 lowed, in the arrangment in the wall cases, Nos. 1-26, inclusive ; 

 in case 27, the Emmons collection of calcites from Rossie, St. Law- 

 rence county, is exhibited. In case 28, the petroleum collection, 

 received from Professor John J. Stevenson, of New York city, 

 is arranged. The more valuable and better crystallized speci- 

 mens of nearly all of the mineral species represented in the 

 general collection, occupy a table case in the front room. The 

 Bergen Hill minerals fill a case in the rear room. The col- 

 lection of gems and cut stones are shown in a case in the same 

 room, placed in the front of a window so as to be well lighted. 

 In another window-case in this room a large mass of green fluor 

 spar from Macomb, St. Lawrence county is on exhibition. A 

 new table-case has been placed in the front room and in it is 

 displayed the beautiful collection of ornamental marbles and 

 serpentines, the gift of Messrs. S. Klaber & Co., of 47 "West Forty- 

 second street. New York. It consists of forty-four dressed and 

 polished blocks, representing the most valued and best known 

 marbles and serpentines for ornamental work from Algeria, Spain, 

 France, Italy, Belgium, Great Britain, Mexico and our own 

 country. There are in the collection two marbles from New 



