REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR I916 II 



crowded. This condition made necessary the diminution of some 

 of the aisle space, and it is not, likely that the geology collections 

 can now be much expanded without the most economic form of 

 distribution of the material. It should be recorded that these new 

 accessions were the property of the New York Commission of the 

 Panama-Pacific Exposition, and should be regarded as a donation 

 from them. To provide room for these accessions, and the neces- 

 sary rearrangement of the cases, the work w^as in progress for a 

 considerable portion of the year. While the exhibit as it now 

 stands is fairly representative of the economic resources of this 

 State in the present stage of knowledge and utilization, there is 

 still a very large opportunity for further expansion in order to 

 illustrate the varied industrial applications of the products of mine 

 and quarry and to portray by models the technic and methods 

 employed in their extraction and elaboration. The use of models 

 has an undoubted educational value, as is evinced by the degree 

 of attention which they attract from visitors. 



In the paleontology hall some important additions have also 

 been made. Two new cases were added in the hall of fossil plants, 

 one in the hall of vertebrates, and four in the hall of invertebrates. 

 Some of the cases have been rearranged and the result of this 

 work has been the creation of two very attractive exhibits, one of 

 the starfishes and crinoids, and one of the Pleistocene fossils 

 deposited by the marine waters of the Lake Champlain basin. All 

 these cases were arranged by Miss Goldring, and the material for 

 the latter collected at her own expense in New" York, Vermont 

 and the provinces of Quebec and Ontario. These recently extinct 

 Pleistocene fossils from the salt-water deposits bounding the 

 ancient Hochelagan sea which preceded Lake Champlain, are dis- 

 played in such a manner as to bring out not only the perfection 

 of the material, but to indicate that these marine shells decreased 

 in size, thickness and number as one goes south w^ard froni the 

 St Lawrence region where the waters of the sea were deepest and 

 of maximum salinity. Where the fresh waters flowed freely into 

 this ancient sea at the south, the species decreased in size and 

 number, so that the marine life seems practically to have become 

 extinct at the latitude of Crow^n Point, while the waters of this 

 narrow sea extended still farther south, though too diluted in their 

 salinity to support the existence of these animals. 



Some additions have been made of restorations in the paleon- 

 tology exhibits. The Museum has received by gift a restoration of 



