DEPARTMENT OF METALLURGY AND ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. 251 



About 1,500 pounds of coal will be required for each test, so that at 

 least 20 tons of each coal will be required for a thorough examination. 

 The samples of coal should be furnished by the mining companies or 

 other parties interested. 



To properly inaugurate the investigation would require an appropri- 

 ation of at least $20,000. 



The total number of specimens in the department is about 48,000. Of 

 these 17,000 have been placed in the exhibition series, 0,445 have been 

 assigned to the reserve series, 1,503 to the duplicate series, and twenty- 

 one boxes of duplicate material have been placed on general storage. 

 Besides the specimens definitely assigned to the reserve series, there is 

 yet a large mass of unorganized material that for the present and for 

 some time to come must be classed in the reserve series. 



As the material of this department becomes more thoroughly organ- 

 ized, both the richness and the deficiencies of the collections that formed 

 the basis of its inauguration become more and more apparent. 



The collections illustrating the mineral wealth of our own country 

 are full and complete, as nearly every prominent mining locality is well 

 represented, so that the collections show very completely where and to 

 what extent valuable deposits have already been found or may be 

 looked for; but of the nature of the ores and the methods of occur- 

 rence in various localities, and of the processes of mining and prepara- 

 tion of the material, the illustrations are very meager and incomplete. 



The curator has made many attempts by correspondence to enlist the 

 aid of friends engaged in mining, and while these efforts have frequently 

 resulted in much valuable material being gathered, yet despite the 

 utmost care in describing what is wanted, and an apparent willingness 

 in the parties addressed to take a little trouble in the matter, it has 

 been very difficult indeed to gather such systematic collections as are 

 needed. 



The department is already tolerably well supplied with large and 

 showy specimens, and is abundantly supplied with the ordinary run of 

 museum specimens; but what is needed are systematic collections, 

 which need not necessarily be large, gathered with especial reference 

 to showing the nature, the methods of occurrence of the various ores 

 in different regions, to illustrating the methods of mining pursued, and 

 to showing the method of preparing the ores for smelting. Now, most 

 mining engineers have not the time to devote to making these collec- 

 tions as they should be made, for to do the work properly requires con- 

 siderable time and exertion ; so that in order to get just what we want 

 it is absolutely essential to make it an object for some one to do the 

 work. 



The original collections illustrating the utilization of the mineral re^ 

 sources of the country, consisted for the most part of elaborate and 

 highly wrought samples of the finished product, showing little or noth- 

 ing of the methods of production ; so that the collections taken together 



