DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY. 249 



REVIEW OF SPECIAL RESEARCHES. 



Owing to the increase of routine work involved in the combination 

 of two departments, no time could be spared for investigation or 

 original research other than that necessary for the satisfactory deter- 

 mination of the materials handled. 



The titles of such papers as have been published are given in the 

 Bibliography. Various officers of the U. S. Geological Survey have, 

 from time to time, had access to the collections, and if necessary, 

 have been supplied, so far as the collections would admit, with ma- 

 terial for investigation. Mr. Waldemar Lindgren has thus been fur- 

 nished with samples from the Bear Paw Mountains in Montana, and 

 some 121 specimens of rocks collected by the geologists of the Fortieth 

 Parallel Survey have been lent to Mr. C. R. Van Hise, of Madison, Wis- 

 consin. 



PRESENT STATE OF THE COLLECTION. 



Ignoring for the time the material still in storage (some three hun- 

 dred boxes) or as yet unpacked and assorted, and concerning which the 

 curator has at present little definite knowledge, and bearing in mind 

 the remarks made under this head in my last. annual report, the follow- 

 ing general summary may be given. No estimate is made of the num- 

 ber of specimeus of ores in the reserve and duplicate series. 



A- — Systematic Geology. 



I. Rocks and rock-forming minerals 2,500 



II. General geology 1, 800 



B. — Economic Geology. 



I. Building and ornamental stones, and stones used in sharpening edge tools. 3, 270 



II. Systematic series of ores 3, 676 



III. Geographic series of ores 5,516 



Total exhibition series 16, 762 



In addition to the above are some 1G,000 specimeus, mostly petro 

 graphical material, stored for study and comparison in the drawers of 

 table cases. 



In connection with the system of cataloguing in the Department of 

 Metallurgy I fiud four catalogues upon which entries have been made 

 as below : 



First entry in July '89—51663, 59602, 66585, 68472. 



Last entry in June '90—51675, 59980, 66675, 68492. 



In the catalogue devoted heretofore to the Department of Lithology 

 and Physical Geology the entries during the year run from 70,692 to 

 72,959. 



