1 8 Report of the President. 



"Aided by the generous gift of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, Mr. 

 Charles Knight has continued his series of water-color drawings 

 representing North American life, which have aroused very great 

 interest abroad as well as in this country. These water-colors 

 have also been reproduced in large bromide photographs, and 

 distributed as exchanges to other museums. 



" Complete series now hang in the British Museum, London, 

 and have been sent to museums at Oxford, and the Royal Museum 

 at Brussels. Altogether, 19 water colors have been completed. 



" We have also begun to make a series of models of extinct 

 animals, also the work of Mr. Knight, which are cast for our own 

 Hall, as well as for the purposes of exchange. 



" Attention is especially directed to the rapid progress in the 

 mechanical methods (under the direction of Mr. Adam Her- 

 mann). Beginning with the low relief style shown in the photo- 

 graphs of the Three- toed Rhinoceros, which was mounted in 1893, 

 we have finally attained the beautiful method shown in the 

 Horned Rhinoceros, the most perfect example of its kind ; the 

 entire skeleton being supported by steel rods which pass through 

 the centre of the bones, only the two main supports being 

 visible. 



" The mount of Phenacodus is also a model, as every bone can 

 be removed for purposes of study, this being one of the rarest 

 and most unique fossil skeletons in the world. 



" In 1896 we reached a stage of development of our fossil 

 Mammal Collection, which rendered it expedient to enter a new 

 field. 



" The total number of specimens collected and catalogued 

 in the five years ending 1896 was 7,661, including nearly 40 

 complete skeletons. This, added to the 3,600 specimens in 

 the Cope Collection, gave us a total of 10,961. This total has 

 been reduced for the fine exchange collections sent to Munich 

 and Paris, for which we have received 300 specimens from 

 Munich and a beautiful series of casts from Paris, to be followed 

 by collections of original skeleton material. 



"In 1897 the Department had extraordinary success in the 

 field as a result of four expeditions, filling 80 boxes, requiring 

 nearly two freight cars for their transportation. 



" Starting to open a quarry in Wyoming for the oldest type of 

 mammals, the party made an unexpected discovery, first of one, 

 then of two reptile skeletons of magnificent size, and in a re- 

 markable state of preservation. 



" Thus has been inaugurated the second great division of the 

 work, namely, the history of the Reptiles in North America. 

 Besides the Dinosaurs found in Wyoming, a good beginning was 

 made in eastern Kansas in the search for flying reptiles and 

 marine swimming reptiles, and for the Mammalian Collection was 



