REPORT OF DEPARTMENT OP PHT8ICAL GhiOLOGY. 237 



don. (lift of Swedish Centennial commissioners and American Insti- 

 tute of Mining Engineers. 



One large Blab (7 feet 5 inches by 3 feel 8 Inches) of granite. Gift of 

 New England Granite Company, Westerly, B. 1. 



One large slab (4 by 8 feet) of .sandstone. Gift of Forest City Stone 

 ( 'ompany, Euclid, Ohio. 



One Large block (5 by 5 by I feet) of syenite from Hot Springs, Ark. 

 (lift of J. s. P. Batchen. 



Among the collections Of the reserve series, hut which are not now 



on exhibition, should be mentioned ft series of 864 hand specimens of 



rocks from the various geological horizons of Canada, New Brunswick, 

 and Nova Scotia, received from the Centennial Exhibition at Philadel- 

 phia, 1870; a series of 335 hand specimens illustrating the geology 

 and tithology of Victoria, Australia ; a series of 160 specimens illus- 

 trating the geology and lithology of New Hampshire, as described by 

 Dr. George W. Hawes in the third volume of Geology of New Hamp- 

 shire; and lastly the Bosenbusch collection, already noted. This collec- 

 tion comprises 587 specimens representing all the more important rocks 

 which have been studied and described by Professor Koseubusch, of 

 Heidelberg. It is, therefore, of great value for reference purposes, and 

 may be regarded as the most important accession of the year. 



The history of the geological department of the Museum may be said 

 to date from the appointment of Dr. George W. Hawes as curator, iu 

 1880. Prior to this time the collections were small and very miscella- 

 neous in their character, the only material of real value, from a geologic 

 or lithologic standpoint which they were found to contain, being a col- 

 lection of 300 specimens of rocks from France, received from Louis Sae- 

 mann in 18G9, and a similar collection of. 148 specimens of rocks of Sax- 

 ony, received from the Royal Mining School of Freiberg in 1863. There 

 was, it is true, much material that might have been of value had there 

 been any accurate data concerning it, but so poorly had the records 

 been kept that in many cases absolutely nothing could be learned in re- 

 gard to the collections, or if anything, the information was so meagre as 

 to be useless. 



At the time Dr. Hawes entered upon his duties as curator, he also 

 took charge of that branch of the Tenth Census relating to the quar- 

 rying industry of the United States. To this work he gave almost his 

 entire attentiou, and the present building-stone collection is the result 

 of his exertions in this direction. Dr. Hawes's connection with the 

 Museum was, however, too short to allow the department to become 

 fully organized, and at the time of his death matters were, if possible, 

 in a state of greater confusion than before, owing to the large amount 

 of material that had accumulated, and the extent of the work under- 

 taken but necessarily uncompleted. The great amount of material re- 

 ceived from the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia in 1876 was still 

 unassorted, as was also that received from the various United States 



