J 6 Forty-first Annual Report on the 



the general collection of minerals, including tlie Kunz collection. 

 By tins change the exhibition space has been largely increased, 

 and nearly all the four stories of the building are now given to 

 exhibition uses. Excepting a small area in the front room reserved 

 for an of3&ce, and a like space partitioned off from the back room 

 for storage and work, the whole of the first story is now devoted 

 to exhibition. 



The library has been removed to suitable cases in the Museum 

 rooms in the State Hall, and the stock of duplicate reports has also 

 been removed to the same building. 



New cases, specially designed for the exhibition of minerals, were 

 constructed along the walls of the rooms, having an aggregate 

 length of 120 feet. Three large and double table cases have been 

 placed on the floor. The case containing the collection of precious 

 stones and cut gems occupies a window alcove in the south room. 

 In one of the table cases the unique and valuable collection of 

 minerals from Bergen Hill, N. J., has been arranged. Another 

 has a selected collection of the finer and more showy minerals, 

 Avhile the third case holds a small collection of pseudomorphs and 

 the calcites of the original Emmons collection of minerals. In the 

 wall cases the general collection, consisting largely of the minerals 

 purchased last year of Mr. George F. Kunz, of New York, is 

 exhibited, arranged according to Dana's system of classification. 



The main part of the Mineralogical department thus occupies 

 the first-floor rooms of the Museum building. The collection of 

 gems and the large and finely crystalized minerals in these new 

 and well-lighted cases forms an interesting feature of the Museum, 

 and attracts the attention of visitors. 



In the second-story room the New York State collection of 

 fossils still occupies its old place and arrangement, and shows the 

 order of succession of plant and animal life in the rock formations 

 of the State. The collections of the geological survey of the State 

 make up the greater part of the material shown in the table cases 

 which extend nearly around the entire room and inclose within 

 their area the pal?eontological cases. 



The alterations in the third story have been the removal of the 

 whale skeleton to the rear hall of the Museum building, and of the 

 general collection of minerals to the first-floor rooms. 



The room in the fourth story and upper floor of the Museum 

 building is now given entirely to the Zoological department. The 



