144 EEPOET ON NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1885. 



rocks of the vein and other interesting material, especially the tools 

 used in and about the mine. 



In representing the extraction and utilization of the metals, it was 

 designed to begin with the ore as it leaves the mine and to follow 

 through the various steps in all the operations to the production of tbe 

 finished articles, showing, when possible, every material goiug into each 

 operation and every product of the operation. 



In the case of coal the collections were based largely on the ethno- 

 logical aspect of the question, and thus iDcluded many specimens aside 

 from those of an economic or geological value. 



Throughout the new collections of the department special attention 

 has been given to gathering as full and complete a description of every- 

 thing shown as possible, while the pictorial side of the question has been 

 treated very elaborately and includes some views of the interior of a 

 coal mine taken by electric light, the first views of the kind ever taken. 



These collections form the basis for a full and complete illustration 

 of the mineral resources of the country, and it is hoped that they will 

 be increased until they shall fill their highest educational value. They 

 have been fully described in Circular No. 31 of the Proceedings of the 

 Museum. 



The regular force of the department having been reduced to the cura- 

 tor, a scientific assistant, and a laborer, the work of preparing the col- 

 lections in the Museum for installation has been at a complete stand- 

 still through the whole six months. During that time, however, the of- 

 fice of the department has been moved to the second floor of the south- 

 west tower, and the work-room on the floor of the Museum has been 

 cleared out and the space prepared for exhibition purposes, so that now 

 the entire work of preparing material for exhibition has been concen- 

 trated into one place. 



The work of investigating the New Orleans material has been car- 

 ried forward as rapidly as possible, and, with the assistance of Mr. 

 Allen, a number of very valuable analyses have been made. 



The curator has published a letter In regard to the aims and objects 

 of the department in the Engineering and Mining Journal of New 

 York, Yol. xxxix, p. 258. 



Mr. E. A. Brock, of Kichmond, Ya., who presented some pieces of 

 slag from the old furnace at Falling Creek, Yirginia, published a his- 

 tory of the locality in the Proceedings of the National Museum, 1885, 

 pp. 77-80. 



Mr. Eichard Pearce described the collection of gold-bismuth alloys 

 presented by him, before the American Institute of Mining Engineers, 

 under the title, " Certain Interesting Crystalline Alloys," Transactions 

 American Institute of Mining Engineers, Yol. xiii, pp. 738-742. 



Thirty-four accessions have been received and 106 entries made. 

 Owing to the small force of the department some of the accessions 

 were not entered until after July 1, and owing to the time between the 



