Report of the President 47 



A giant specimen of Inoceramus, more than four feet across, 

 from the Niobrara Chalk beds of Kansas, has been carefully- 

 restored as far as the material permitted and has been placed 

 on exhibition. 



The smaller of the two specimens of glacial grooves from 

 Kelly's Island, which were obtained in the fall of 1909 with the 

 aid of the Dr. F. E. Slocum Fund, has been squared up and 

 mounted at the south end of the Hall of Geology. 



In the main Hall of Geology, metal-framed cases have been 

 installed, as an experiment with reference to the recasing of 

 the entire hall. On account of the taking of the south 

 central hall of the building (what has been the Mineral 

 Hall for the past ten years) for the exhibition of Quaternary 

 mammals, etc., it has been decided to reverse the arrange- 

 ment of the specimens in the Hall of Geology and have 

 the historical series begin at the south end instead of the 

 north end as at present. Work upon this change will be begun 

 in January. 



The Curator retained the editorship of the American 

 Museum Journal through the issue of the May number, and 

 then was relieved of the duty. He was ably assisted in this 

 editorial work by Miss Mary C. Dickerson, who has since been 

 sole editor of the Journal. 



Changes in the Staff. — On 31 December, 1909, after more 

 than thirty-two years of active service, Professor R. P. Whit- 

 field was retired from the curatorship of this department and 

 made its Curator Emeritus. The full care of the department was 

 assigned to the present Curator beginning with 1 January, 

 1910, although the official appointment was not made until 

 the time of the Annual Meeting of the Board of Trustees. 

 After a lingering illness of several weeks, Professor Whit- 

 field died at Troy, N. Y., on 6 April. He was a remarkable 

 man in many ways. Although he had had practically no 

 school training, his mind was naturally so methodical in 

 its workings, his faculties of observation were so keen and 

 his memory for places, dates and form so retentive that he 

 became one of the foremost palaeontologists of his genera- 

 tion and rendered invaluable service to the Museum, par- 



