20 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



of an option of purchase whenever it would become practicable for 

 us to meet the necessary expense attending removal. At a later date 

 I entered into a contract with Frederick Braun for the removal of 

 the principal part of the exposure, having a length of 33 feet and a 

 width of 10 feet. The undertaking was an extraordinaril}' arduous 

 one, rendered the more difficult by the checking of the sandstone 

 along parallel or converging joint faces which made it necessary to 

 set each block in place in plaster of paris as it was removed. The 

 work of removal required two months and on its completion the ex- 

 posed slab had been taken out in six sections, the whole weighing 23 

 tons. 



We have in this remarkable specimen an unexampled and impres- 

 sive exhibit. Facilities for the display of such specimens simply do 

 not exist in the present constitution of our museum but we can not 

 on that account let slip opportunities which may not return, for ac- 

 quiring such specimens. Storage has been found for these slabs with 

 the Flint Granite Co. at the Cemetery station. 



Lease of the Spring House lot. In order to secure for the museum 

 a more extensive series of the rare crustaceans from the base of the 

 Salina group, described by Clifton J. Sarle and myself in previous 

 reports and to facilitate our own further studies of this fauna, I have 

 negotiated a lease of the property adjoining the Erie canal at Pitts- 

 ford for the purpose of excavating these remarkable fossils. We 

 purpose to break ground at this place with the opening of the next 

 field season. 



Proposed salt mine at Wyoming'. During the past year it was pro- 

 posed by the Silver Springs Salt Co. to put down a shaft for mining 

 rock salt at Wyoming", Wyoming co. A company was organized for 

 this purpose with the name Oatka Salt Co. under the management 

 of John H. Duncan. 



The section of the rock strata compiled by us some years ago 

 from the Livonia salt shaft afforded the most complete information 

 of the rock succession and sequence of faunas through 1600 feet of 

 strata yet recorded in this State. It v/ould be an important contribu- 

 tion to this science if we could duplicate and supplement this elabo- 

 rate section, and consequently I entered into an understanding with 



