20 Report on the State Museum of Natural History. 



daily number is increasing from year to year, varying, however, 

 greatly in the different seasons and determined somewhat by the 

 condition of the weather. Many teachers have visited the Museum 

 the past year and some of them have brought their geological classes 

 with them. Occasionally the .building is thronged by excursion 

 parties visiting the capital city. The lack of small hand-books or 

 guides is a serious drawback to the usefulness of the collections. 

 The crowded condition of the cases also deters many visitors from 

 the attempt to examine, even if it were possible, the collections 

 in the mineralogical and geological rooms. At present it is 

 impossible to arrange the material on exhibition in such consecu- 

 tive order as to show the proper relations of groups and classes of 

 objects and make them instructive in the highest degree. 



Want of space in the cases will not admit of any additional col- 

 lections, or even many individual specimens. The zoological 

 room is particularly well filled and needing more space. A large 

 amount of palseontological material is stored in the State Hall, 

 partly, however, for better security there, in a fire-proof building. 

 The collection illustrative of dynamical and stratigraphical geology 

 is packed in cases in the basement. The economics also are, in 

 great part, stored in boxes and cases in the Geological Hall and 

 some in the mineral room in the State Hall. That all these col- 

 lections should be on exhibition in a State Museum is self-evident. 

 Of the importance of room for the full exhibition of specimens 

 from all localities of occurrence in the State, particularly in min- 

 erals of economic importance it is not necessary to write more. 

 The subject was referred to in the last annual report. The 

 value of the Museum collections as educational material suggests 

 a general rearrangement or enlarged accommodations. 



Respectfully submitted. 



JOHN C. SMOCK. 



