222 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1884. 



the purchase and collection of specimens, with very favorable results. 

 Instead of attempting a general display of minerals it was thought best 

 to take up one special class, and the class chosen for exhibition was 

 that of "gems and ornamental stones." The schedule which was 

 adopted included all the gems proper, rock crystal, agates and jaspers, 

 malachite, lapis lazuli, jet, meerschaum, amber &c; and every impor- 

 tant gem or ornamental species was secured both in the rough and cut 

 conditions. About one thousand specimens of this class are now on 

 exhibition in New Orleans, of which nearly or quite one-third are cut 

 and polished stones. Educationally, the gem collection is practically 

 complete, and needs only to be improved by the addition of minor va- 

 rieties or the replacement of small specimens by better ones. A part 

 of this collection was shown at the Cincinnati Exposition in September. 



In connection with the New Orleans work, two important field expe- 

 ditions were made by Mr. W. S. Yeates. In his first trip, he visited the 

 mineral region of Northern New York, and secured valuable material at 

 Antwerp and Gouverneur. The suite of minerals from the Sterling iron 

 mine at Antwerp is exceptionally fine and complete. To the liberality 

 of Mr. E. B. Bulkley, president of the Jefferson Iron Company at Ant- 

 werp, the Museum is indebted for nearly all of these specimens, a few 

 having been secured from other parties by exchange. The millerites, 

 siderites and chalcodites of this series are especially good, several 

 handsome specimens of white siderite being included. Interest in the 

 growth of the Museum was exhibited, in a practical way, by Mr. W. H. 

 Andrews of Gouverneur, who generously contributed quite a number 

 of specimens from his private collection, including not only the min- 

 erals from St. Lawrence County, but also some from various other 

 localities. Exceptionally good crystals of selenite from Grand Rapids, 

 Mich., a specimen of whitneyite from Lake Superior, a specimen of 

 crystallized white tourmaline from I)e Kalb, N. Y., a number of good 

 crystals of black tourmaline from Pierrepont, N. Y. and a very large 

 crystal of brown tourmaline, with perfect faces, from Gouverneur, were 

 among the most important contributions made by Mr. Andrews. The 

 Museum is also under obligations to Messrs. John D. Swan and E. S. 

 Hodge, of Antwerp, and Messrs. John Webb, F. Lavack and O. P, 

 Fuller, of Gouverneur. 



In his second trip, Mr. Yeates visited the Hot Springs of Arkansas, 

 where he obtained good series of quartz crystals, wavellites, variscites, 

 brookites, ru tiles &c. During this trip, he also went to Mine La Motte, 

 in Missouri, securing a quantity of linnseite, some exceptionally fine 

 marcasite, and other good material. Thanks are due to Messrs. J. W. 

 Neill, J. D. Sanders and B. Column, and to Mrs. A. J. Beardsley, for 

 most of the specimens collected at Mine La Motte. Both expeditions 

 were so successful as to justify me in urging that the practice of field 

 collection should be systematically encouraged, and that each year col- 



