30 KEPORT OF THE SECRETAEY. 



by Mr. Sherwood, and includes many choice ylabs filled with large brachiojuidH and 

 niollusks, besides about 8,000 small specimens. 



The collection of vertebrate fossils was increased by several important additions, 

 one of which, comprising the teeth of Mastodon humhoMtil and Mastodon cordillerum 

 and casts of mandibular rami, was received from the British Museum, London, Eng- 

 land. Dr. H. J. Herbein, of Pottsville, Pa., contributed a slalj of sandstone showing 

 reptilian footprints, from Mount Carbon, Pa., and Mr. Whitman Cross, of the Tnited 

 States Geological Survey, collected and transmitted a tooth of Cktdodus formosus 

 (Hay) from Needle Mountains Quadrangle, Colorado. 



About 500 specimens of Triassic plants, collected in Connecticut and Massachusetts 

 by INIr. S. "Ward Loper, of the United States Geological Survey, have been turned 

 over to the Museum; a small series of fossil plants from the Permian of Ohio was 

 donated by Mr. H. Herzer, of Marietta, Ohio, and about 80 specimens of Paleozoic 

 plants were received with the Ulrii'h collection above mentioned. 



Explorations. — Fewer exjjlorations than usual were carried on last year directly by 

 the ]\Iuseum, owing to the scarcity of means for this purpose. 



The fieldwork under the Bureau of American Ethnology, whicli yielded interest- 

 ing collections of objects, since deposited in the Museum as before mentioned, was 

 conducted by Mr. William H. Holmes, Mr. Gerard Fowke, and Dr. J. Walter 

 Fewkes. Mr. Holmes visited the aboriginal hematite mines at Leslie, Mo., and Mr. 

 Fowke an ancient quarry in Carter County, Ky., while Do(!tor Fewkes spent con- 

 •?idei'able time in Santo Domingo and Porto Rico. 



The important exj^lorations of Dr. William L. Abbott in Sumatra and the adjoin- 

 ing islands, as well as on the mainland of the Straits Settlements, have already 

 been referred to under the heading of Additions to the Collections. These explora- 

 tions, which are carried on entirely at the expense of Doctor Abbott, have now been 

 in progress for several years, and through his generosity the National Museum has 

 been the fortunate recipient of the very large and extremely valuable collections that 

 he has made. 



Mr. F. A. Lucas, with two others of the Museum staff, visited one of the stations 

 of the C'abot Steam Whaling Company, on the coast of Newfoundland, in the 

 interest of the St. Louis Exposition, for the purpose of securing as complete a 

 representation as possible of a large suli)hur-bottom whale. He Mas entirely suc- 

 cessful, returning with a perfect skeleton of a specimen measuring al)out 78 feet 

 long, and with molds of the exterior from which a cast of the entire animal will be 

 made. These specimens, at the close of the exposition, will be returned and 

 exhil)ite<l in the Museum. 



Through the courtesy of the Geographical Society of Baltimore the Museum was 

 enabled to send Mr. B. A. Bean and Mr. J. H. Riley with an expedition to the 

 Bahama Islands, where they made collections of the fishes and land animals of 

 that region. 



Dr. H. G. Dyar and Mr. Rolla P. Currie, also of the Museum staff, accompanied 

 an expedition to British Columbia under the auspices of the Carnegie ^luseum, and 

 brought back with them a large and important collection of insects. Mr. Gerrit S. 

 Miller, jr., collected mammals in Virginia, and Mr. William R. INIaxon jilants in 

 Jamaica. 



Mr. S. Ward Loper, of the United States Geological Survey, n^ade for the Museum 

 an interesting collection of Triassic plants in Connecticut and Massachusetts, and, 

 through arrangements with the Director of the Survey, Hon. Charles D. Walcott, 

 Mr. Charles Schuchert, of the Museum staff, spent several weeks in Virginia and 

 Georgia with the si^ecial view of determining the geological horizons of the southern 

 part of the Appalachians. Incidental to this study he collected many fossils. Sev- 

 eral tveeks were spent by Mr. R. S. Bassler in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, collect- 

 intj invertebrate fossils. 



