XIV. — IHCI'A KTMKNT OF MINERALOGY. 



By P. \V. Ci.akkk, Honorary Curator. 



During the yew the growth of the mineral collection has been steady 

 and encouraging. Material of great value has been received from many 

 sources, the work of installing the collection has been definitely begun, 

 and a system of exchanges has been fairly inaugurated. In connection 

 with my duties as chief chemist of the U. S. Geological Survey, I have 

 been able to institute some scientific investigations upon minerals col- 

 lected in the field, and similar work has also been carried forward by 

 certain of my assistants. 



A list of all the accessions to the mineral collection during 1884 would 

 be too bulky for publication, but a brief resume of the more notable 

 ones may be interesting. The first place must be given, both by merit 

 and in courtesy, to the admirable suite of American minerals loaned to 

 the Museum by Mr. Joseph Willcox, of Media, Pa. This collection num- 

 bers some 1,400 specimens, and fills the equivalent of six large sloping- 

 top cases of three shelves each. It is remarkably rich in quartzes, 

 rutiles, corundums, feldspars, amphiboles, pyroxenes, micas, tourma- 

 lines, pyrophyllites, apatites and danburites, and in some of its series 

 it could hardly be paralleled. Next in importance is the Abert collec- 

 tion, which, made by Col. J. J. Abert, was presented to the Museum by 

 his son, J. T. Abert, and contains 1,245 specimens. It was particularly 

 rich in foreign material, and filled many serious gaps in the Museum 

 series. 



To Prof. S. F. Peckham of Minneapolis, Minn., we are indebted for 

 a handsome group of cut specimens of pebbles of thomsonite from Min- 

 nesota. From Mr. J. D. Schreiber of Shimersville, Pa., we received a 

 large, fine crystal of corundum, together with several smaller ones, all 

 of them from Shimersville. From Mr. Richard Pearce of Argo, Colo., 

 we received a number of rare arsenates and phosphates of copper from 

 the American Eagle Mine, Utah. Another lot of this material was col- 

 lected for this department, last summer, by Mr. F. P. Dewey, Curator of 

 the Department of Metallurgy. 



Another large group of accessions is attributable to the appropria- 

 tion made for the Museum exhibit at the New Orleans Exposition. A 

 part of this appropriation was allotted to the mineral department for 



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