Report of the President 33 



The office rooms for the Department of Geology are also 

 well advanced and will furnish a little relief for this department. 



New Exhibitions. — As noted by the Curator of the Depart- 

 ment of Mineralogy, important changes are desirable in the 

 hall containing the Morgan Collection of Gems. The room, 

 cases and fittings should harmonize with the exhibits; they 

 now illustrate a phase in the growth of museums that is gen- 

 erally overlooked by the visitor, the extension of collections 

 in an unlooked for direction, and the difficulty of making 

 proper provision for such increase. It is recognized that the 

 room and installation are not in keeping with its contents, but 

 under existing conditions, with the many demands for the actual 

 preservation of material already on hand, it is impossible to 

 treat the various exhibits as the administration would like. 



Many of the new exhibits, as well as extensive changes in 

 the exhibition halls, are dealt with in the reports of the various 

 departments. The more important individual pieces are the 

 Cryptobranchus Group and the groups of insects. Various other 

 groups are well advanced, among them one showing the breeding 

 habits of the freshwater '• dogfish," Amia, one illustrating the 

 life history of the common toad and its associates, the Vine- 

 yard Haven Wharf-pile Group, and the northern Sea Elephant 

 Group. This latter has not been pushed as rapidly as it might 

 have been, since it cannot be finished and installed until the 

 completion of the Southeast Court Building. 



The reproduction of a section of the beautiful cave on the 

 territory of the Copper Queen Mine is also so far advanced 

 that it will probably be completed during the first quarter of 

 1913, while the large and detailed model of the Copper Queen 

 Mining Co.'s property, in course of construction for some 

 years past, is now being assembled near by in the Hall of 

 Geology. 



The transfer of the sections of the giant Sequoia and Red- 

 wood trunks from the Darwin Hall to the Forestry Hall has 

 greatly improved the appearance of both rooms, and the 

 erection of the bronze tablet of Mr. Jesup, the gift of the late 

 John J. Clancy, provides a fitting introduction to a collection 

 in which Mr. Jesup took special interest. 



