REPORT ON THE DEPARTMENT OF MINERALS IN THE U. S. NATIONAL 



MUSEUM, 1888. 



By F. W. Clarke, Honorary Curator. 



During the year the routine work of the Department has been mainly 

 carried on by Mr. W. S. Yeates, under my direction, and the collection 

 of minerals has grown quite rapidly. The following important acces- 

 sions are noteworthy : 



The collection of meteorites has been considerably enlarged by gift 

 and by exchange. Twenty-three falls were added to the list, and four 

 casts of well-known and characteristic meteors. On the first of July 

 our meteorite collection numbered one hundred and twenty-four distinct 

 falls ; and the Shepard collection, which itself has been notably increased, 

 will bring the total number represented in the Museum up to fully two 

 hundred and fifty. Exchanges were made with the British Museum, 

 the Educational Museum of Tokio, the National Museum of Brazil, 

 Amherst College, Mr. J. R. Gregory of London, his excellency J. de 

 Siemachko of St. Petersburg, Ward & Howell of Rochester, and Mr. 

 G. F. Kunz of New York. The Government of the Netherlands East 

 Indies, presented a fine piece of the Djati Pengilou, Java, meteorite ; Mr. 

 Richard Pearce gave a specimen of the Albuquerque iron ; fragments of 

 the Fayette County, Texas, and Rockwood, Tennessee, falls were given 

 by Ward & Howell, and Mr. Kunz contributed examples of the Taoey 

 County, Missouri, stone, and the iron from Chattooga County, Georgia. 



The gem collection has grown but little since the last annual report. 

 At the Cincinnati Exposition a small selection from it is now exhibited, 

 and some valuable additions have been made to the collection for that 

 display, mostly by purchase. They include a small series of polished 

 specimens of the Arizona agatized wood, a fine medallion carved in 

 labradorite, a group of fruit carved in different precious stones from 

 Siberia, eighteen beryls from North Carolina, thirteen opals from Mex- 

 ico, five moonstones from Virginia, an oval dish of crocidolite quartz, a 

 South African diamond in the gangue, a large blue-white topaz from 

 Japan, and perhaps twenty minor stones. Five cut beryls of different 

 colors, all from Litchfield County, Connecticut, were presented by the 

 New England Mining Company, through Mr. J. F. Barse. 



The general collection of minerals has received some very important 

 additions. First in magnitude is the collection bequeathed to the Mu- 



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